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Review
. 2018 Mar 19;23(3):692.
doi: 10.3390/molecules23030692.

Anticancer Activity of Toxins from Bee and Snake Venom-An Overview on Ovarian Cancer

Marius Alexandru Moga  1 , Oana Gabriela Dimienescu  2 , Cristian Andrei Arvătescu  3 , Petru Ifteni  4 , Liana Pleş  5
Affiliations
Review

Anticancer Activity of Toxins from Bee and Snake Venom-An Overview on Ovarian Cancer

Marius Alexandru Moga et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Cancer represents the disease of the millennium, a major problem in public health. The proliferation of tumor cells, angiogenesis, and the relationship between the cancer cells and the components of the extracellular matrix are important in the events of carcinogenesis, and these pathways are being used as targets for new anticancer treatments. Various venoms and their toxins have shown possible anticancer effects on human cancer cell lines, providing new perspectives in drug development. In this review, we observed the effects of natural toxins from bee and snake venom and the mechanisms through which they can inhibit the growth and proliferation of cancer cells. We also researched how several types of natural molecules from venom can sensitize ovarian cancer cells to conventional chemotherapy, with many toxins being helpful for developing new anticancer drugs. This approach could improve the efficiency of standard therapies and could allow the administration of decreased doses of chemotherapy. Natural toxins from bee and snake venom could become potential candidates for the future treatment of different types of cancer. It is important to continue these studies concerning therapeutic drugs from natural resource and, more importantly, to investigate their mechanism of action on cancer cells.

Keywords: bee venom; carcinogenesis; human cancer cell lines; ovarian cancer; snake venom.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Carcinogenesis and the effects of toxins from snake and bee venom on the different steps of the process (adapted from [17,18]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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