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Review
. 2023 Jul 21;15(14):3714.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15143714.

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

Agata Małek  1 , Maciej Strzemski  2 , Joanna Kurzepa  3 , Jacek Kurzepa  1
Affiliations
Review

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

Agata Małek et al. Cancers (Basel). .

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.

Keywords: apoptosis; bee venom; cancer; melittin; tumor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Main bee venom components (adapted from Bee Venom Lab LLC, Georgia). The composition of the venom depends on many factors, including the region of the world and the time of year when the venom is collected [11].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The body’s response to bee venom (prepared on the basis of [18]).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Flowchart showing a selection of articles from the last 10 years on preclinical studies on the effect of bee venom on tumor development.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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