Researchers from the Hessian LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG) in Germany show that wild bee venoms, which have so far been little studied, contain more original variants of melittin, the main component of their venom, which could have applications in the breast cancer.
It has long been known that bee venom melittin has a strong effect in laboratory experiments. It is about a hundred times more effective than cortisone in inflammation and is also being studied as an active substance against microbes and cancer cells. Its disadvantage is that with its intensive effect healthy cells are also damaged, which makes it much more difficult to use.
“The insight from our comparative analysis was that melittin only became so toxic in the course of evolution, and that evolutionarily older wild bees can produce more pristine variants of melittin in venom that are pharmacologically easier to use,” he reports. co-author Björn M. von Reumont of the Department of Biosciences of the Goethe University of Frankfurt.
“In the study, therefore, we compared different variants of melittin. Some are known from the honey bee, which is more popular than the wild one, others we have just discovered thanks to our combined analysis of the molecules, proteins and genome of the venom from wild bees,” he says.
The aim of this research, published in the journal ‘Toxins’, was the different modes of action on inflammation and cancer. ‘We examined the effects of melittin peptides on cell damage and the release of inflammatory markers and messenger substances in both cancerous and non-cancer human cells, and one of the substances that caught the team’s attention was bee melittin. carpenter. viola, a species of wild bee. In laboratory analyses, this showed a promising effect on breast cancer cells,” explains study co-author Pelin Erkoc-Erik.
Researchers agree that melittin peptides discovered in wild bee species do indeed reveal new, less aggressive activities, possibly promising potential for future pharmaceutical applications. With these melittin variants it is not necessary to compensate for the strong toxicity with inhibitory substances.
The team now wants to expand on the findings with insights from various research areas. For example, von Reumont, co-leader of the European Venoms Network (CUST action EUVEN), is involved in a project further studying the evolution and use of venoms in bees and other invertebrates, including to treat cancer. Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Giessen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology ITMP in Frankfurt, who are participating in the study, are also following up on the new findings. Linking basic and applied research in a translational approach is the aim of the LOEWE TBG Center.
