Can Bee Venom Be Used As Anticancer Agent in Modern Medicine?

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2023 Jul 29

PMID 37509375

Authors

Agata Malek

Maciej Strzemski

Joanna Kurzepa

Jacek Kurzepa

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Honey bee venom in its composition contains many biologically active peptides and enzymes that are effective in the fight against diseases of various etiologies. The history of the use of bee venom for medicinal purposes dates back thousands of years. There are many reports in the literature on the pharmacological properties of bee venom and/or its main components, e.g., anti-arthritic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial or neuroprotective properties. In addition, both crude venom and melittin exhibit cytotoxic activity against a wide range of tumor cells, with significant anti-metastatic activity in pre-clinical studies. Due to the constantly increasing incidence of cancer, the development of new therapeutic strategies in oncology is a particular challenge for modern medicine. A review paper discusses the various properties of bee venom with an emphasis on its anticancer properties. For this purpose, the PubMed database was searched, and publications related to "bee", "venom", "cancer" from the last 10 years were selected.

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