15 Dec HONEYBEE VENOM AND BREAST CANCER
If you have been stung by a Honey bee you know how much it hurts. You could be one of the unlucky ones who gets an allergic reaction and end up in hospital! Regardless of your connection to bee stings there is now some exciting news coming out of “The Harry Perkins Institute of Medial Research” Perth. Studies have shown that honeybee venom rapidly kills aggressive and hard to treat breast cancer cells.
This ground-breaking news has been discovered here in Australia. Dr Ciara Duffy has made these findings while working on her PhD. This is very exciting, but there is still a long way to go Dr Duffy said!
The study showed that when the venom’s main component was combined with existing chemotherapy drugs it was extremely efficient at reducing tumours grown in mice. Dr Duffy hopes the discovery could lead to the development of a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for 10% to 15% of all breast cancers for which there no clinically effective therapy to date.
It’s exciting on so many levels! Firstly, the venom component together with the chemotherapy drugs showed a significant reduction of the cancer cells within 1 hour, while at the same time not compromising the healthy cells!
We still have a long way to go before this treatment is ready to be used extensively in humans, but it’s comforting to know that the humble honeybee during its natural course of life is working hard, while we unlock the health secrets it holds.
It’s not just honey it offers us it looks like it will be heaps more!
