POTENTIAL ANTI CANCER ACTIVITY OF SNAKE VENOM, BEE VENOM AND THEIR COMPONENTS IN LIVER AND BREAST CARCINOMA

The present study aimed to evaluate the antitumor efficacy of Snake venom (SV), bee venom (BV), combinations of their components and their apoptotic, cell death mechanisms in liver (HepG2) and breast (MCF7) cell lines. Cytotoxic effects of venoms, L-Amino acid oxidase (svLAAO), phospholipase A2(svPLA2), Melittin ( MEL) were tested against HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines and IC50 was calculated . mRNA expression of p53, Bax and Bcl-2  was carried out. All the tested compounds had anti proliferative effects on the tumor cell lines with different potency. BV had a higher cytotoxicity against liver and breast cells (IC50=1.26 and 2.85 µg/ml) than SV (IC50=5.86, 13.05µg /ml). The cytotoxicity of svLAAO was much higher than SV with IC50 = 3.65 and 0.48 µg /ml. MEL showed a higher cytotoxic effect than BV against MCF7 cells (IC50=1.14 µg /ml). MEL when combined with svPLA2 gave a synergistic effect on the expression of P53 and Bax in the two cancer cells. Venoms combination had the least synergistic effect relative to other combinations. From our results it could be concluded that SV, BV and their major components are promising anticancer agents for liver and breast carcinoma. SvLAAO is the most effective and safe compound (than its crude venom) to be used as antitumor agent or in combination with chemotherapeutic drug. MEL is a good candidate for liver and breast cancer treatment, it could be used in combined form with svPLA2 or svLAAO.