Our 4th program in this six-part series created by Dr. Vliet and Kathy Kresnik explores the therapeutic applications of Bee Venom, also known as apitoxin, for the treatment of many human diseases. Bee venom contains several active molecules such as peptides and enzymes that have advantageous potential in treating inflammation, immune-related diseases and central nervous system diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Bee venom has also shown anti-viral activity, even against the challenging human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
More recently, Bee Venom has shown many promising benefits against many different types of cancer; renal, lung, liver, prostate, bladder, and breast cancer cells as well as leukemia cells, can be targets of bee venom peptides such as melittin and phospholipase A2. Our program will summarize the main compounds of bee venom, their primary biological properties, mechanisms of action, and their therapeutic values in alternative therapy strategies particularly in cancer treatments. We discuss the potential of bee venom and its compounds such as melittin to induce cytotoxic, antitumor, immunomodulatory, antiproliferative and apoptotic effects in different tumor cells in vivo or in vitro.
Joining Dr. Vliet and Kathy for further discussion how bee venom is collected is Walter Schumacher, known as the “Bee-Czar,” is a beekeeper and “bee rescuer” from Texas, and the founder of the American Honey Bee Protection Agency (ahbpa.org).
