Anticancer Agents

This research required the collection of European honeybees (Apis mellifera) and buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris audax) from apiaries and farms around the world.  Once collected live, bees were first anaesthetized with carbon dioxide, and then their stingers were removed prior to the manual extraction of their venom glands.  Venom was removed from these glands, and then it was centrifuged so that the supernatant could be used in research.

In addition, synthetic melittin peptide was used in this research, which was ordered from the China Peptides Corporation.  Melittin is a positively charged amphipathic peptide, which is responsible for the toxic properties of both honeybee venom and bumblebee venom.  It should be noted that a greater concentration of melittin exists in honeybee venom than in bumblebee venom.

Cell Lines

To study the efficacy of these anticancer agents, researchers chose a diverse variety of human breast cancer cell lines.  This enabled them to uncover the nuanced effects of each agent on different subtypes of breast cancer.  These subtypes included HER-2 enriched breast cancer, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and luminal breast cancer.  Additionally, researchers used cell lines for primary dermal fibroblasts and mammary non-transformed cells to act as controls to which they may compare the breast cancer cells.  Eleven different cell lines were used in total, as is shown below.

A visual summary of the cell lines used to model different human breast cancer subtypes and healthy human cells. © BioRender.