Monday, March 08, 2010

Bee Venom May Help Treat Liver Disease

Bee Venom Protects Hepatocytes from Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha and Actinomycin D
Park JH, Kim KH, Kim SJ, Lee WR, Lee KG, Park KK.
Arch Pharm Res, 2010 Feb;33(2):215-23

Honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom (BV) has a broad array of therapeutic applications in traditional medicine to treat variety of diseases. It is also known that BV possesses anti-inflammatory and anticancer effect and that it can inhibit proliferation and induces apoptosis in cancer cells, but there is no evidence of information regarding anti-apoptosis of BV on hepatocytes.

In the present study, we investigated the anti-apoptotic effect of BV on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha with actinomycin (Act) D induces apoptosis in hepatocytes. TNF-alpha/Act D-treated hepatocytes were exposed to different low concentration (1, 10 and 100 ng/mL) of BV.

Our results showed statistically significant inhibition in DNA damage caused by BV treatment compared to corresponding TNF-alpha/Act D-treated hepatocytes. BV suppressed TNF-alpha/Act Dtreated activation of bcl-2 family and caspase family, which resulted in inhibition of cytochrome c release and PARP cleavage.

These results demonstrate that low concentration BV possess a potent suppressive effect on anti-apoptotic responses of TNF-alpha/Act D-treated hepatocytes and suggest that these compounds may contribute substantial therapeutic potential for the treatment of liver diseases.

1 comment:

La perrita Marilin said...

Es muy difícil acertar la dosis de VB en casos de cáncer y principalmente, la baja concentración está muy referida a la tolerancia y la indica el mismo enfermo. El veneno de abejas es muy capaz de producir apoptosis en células malignas, pero el proceso puede llegar a ser muy violento y de ahí la necesidad de actuar con protocolos de baja concentración; el veneno depura la sangre y, como no, descarga el sobreesfuerzo de órganos que como el hígado también trabajan en esta dirección. Un saludo.