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Bee Venom and Melittin are Cytotoxic Against Different Types of Tumor and Non-Tumor Cell Lines in Vitro

Many natural products that have been used for centuries in traditional medicine from Asia are becoming increasingly popular as potential alternative treatment approaches in Western hemisphere. Among them are venoms, as rich sources of several bioactive compounds with therapeutic potentials. Venom derived form Apis mellifera, and especially its major constituent melittin have been mostly studied in last few years. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of whole bee venom and melittin towards different types of tumor cells: human laryngeal carcinoma HEp-2 and cervical carcinoma HeLa cells, and their drug-resistant sublines (CK2 and HeLa CK cells, respectively), breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells, colon adenocarcinoma SW620 cells, and glioblastoma A1235 cells, as well as human embryonic kidney HEK-293 cells and normal Hef fibroblasts. Bee venom was tested in concentrations ranging from 0.4 μg/ml to 200 μg/ml, and melittin in concentrations from 0.1 μg/ml to 50 μg/ml. Cytotoxicity was evaluated using spectrophotometric MTT test. The morphology of treated cells was determined by light and fluorescent microscopy. Results showed that bee venom and melittin possess strong cytotoxic potential towards different human cultured tumor cell lines, and that their effects are dose and cell type dependent. Melittin exhibited even greater cytotoxicity to all types of cells tested. Additionally, tumor cells were more sensitive to both, bee venom and melittin, as compared to the non-tumor cells. Depending on the origin, drug-resistant cells could be more sensitive to melittin than parental cells. Both, bee venom and melittin induced morphological changes in treated cells. Morphological features were rounded and granulated morphology, cell shrinkage and eventual detachment from the culture plates. Their fast staining with ethidium bromide suggests that both bee venom and melittin, given in higher doses, probably induce necrotic type of cell death. These results suggest that bee venom and melittin may have beneficial role in anti-cancer therapy.

Bee venom ; Melittin ; Cytotoxicity ; Tumor cells ; Non-tumor cells ; Cell death

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