#mellitin

Float like a jellyfish, sting like a bee - a titbit of science behind bees, jellyfish and their venoms

It is common knowledge that to anger a bee is a bad idea as in situations of danger or in response to attack pheromones, the bee may sting you, injecting you with its venom, apitoxin. In the case of a jellyfish, stinging is a self-defence mechanism and is also employed in order to incapacitate prey. However, the mechanism by which they achieve this is much less well-known.

It is by the firing of…

Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Bee venom contains a potent toxin called melittin that can poke holes in the protective envelope that surrounds HIV, and other viruses. Large amounts of free melittin can cause a lot of damage. Indeed, in addition to anti-viral therapy, the paper's senior author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has shown melittin-loaded nanoparticles to be effective in killing tumor cells.