Researchers have discovered that the venom of Polybia paulista, an aggressive social wasp found in Brazil, has the power to destroy cancer cells without causing any harm to normal ones.
Polybia paulista's venom contains a toxin, MP1, which during lab tests, is seen to selectively destroy tumors. The way it works is that MP1 interacts with lipids or fatty molecules found on the outside of cancer cell membranes. The venom then creates "gaping holes" in the structure of the protective membranes, allowing molecules critical for cancer cell function and survival to leak out. The study was published in the Biophysical Journal.
The "large" holes take "only seconds" to form, said study co-author Dr João Neto of Brazil's São Paulo State University.
During tests in the lab, MP1 was seen to restrict the growth of leukemia cells, as well as prostate and bladder cancer cells which had become multi-drug resistant, reports Geo News.
"Cancer therapies that attack the lipid composition of the cell membrane would be an entirely new class of anticancer drugs. This could be useful in developing new combination therapies, where multiple drugs are used simultaneously to treat a cancer by attacking different parts of the cancer cells at the same time," stated Paul Beales, one of the study's authors, in a news release.
"This early stage research increases our understanding of how the venom of the Brazilian wasp can kill cancer cells in the laboratory. But while these findings are exciting, much more work is needed in the lab and in clinical trials before we will know if drugs based on this research could benefit cancer patients," said Aine McCarthy, science information officer for Cancer Research U.K., reports the BBC.
