Venom from honeybees has shown to be effective in destroying aggressive and hard-to-kill breast cancer cells, according to an Australian study.
The research published in the Nature Precision Oncology journal, also showed that when the venom was combined with existing chemotherapy drugs, it was effective in reducing tumour growth in mice.
A specific concentration of the honeybee venom was found to kill 100 per cent of the triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer wills within 60 minutes.
At the same time the venom would have a minimal effect on normal cells, according to the research.
It is hoped the discovery could lead to the development of a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.
Dr Ciara Duffy carried out the research at the Perth's Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research as part of her PhD.
"Perth bees are some of the healthiest in the world," Dr Duffy told ABC News.
"We found that the venom from honeybees is remarkably effective in killing some of these really aggressive breast cancer cells at concentrations which aren't as damaging to normal cells."
She added that the melittin component of the venom is what made the treatment potent for the cancerous cells.
The scientists put the bees to sleep using carbon dioxide and then they extract the venom to inject it into the tumours in mice.
They were able to synthetically reproduce the melittin which was found to mirror the majority of the anti-cancer effects of the honeybee venom.
"What melittin does is it actually enters the surface, or the plasma membrane and forms holes or pores and it just causes the cell to die," said Dr Duffy.
Western Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken said: "I think it's incredibly exciting that they've made this observation that the molecule melittin can actually affect the cancer cells, but that it can work in combination with other drugs which come from natural products as well, and in combination they're really knocking these cancer cells on the head."
Dr Duffy added that there was still "some way to go" before the researchers can determine how to administer the potential treatment in the body.
