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Wasps can help cure cancer
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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British scientists have discovered that substances contained in the venom of Brazilian wasps can help cure cancer while remaining harmless to the body. The venom of these insects destroys malignant cells without interacting with normal ones. Scientists have found that the venom interacts with the membrane of malignant cells, thereby causing their death.
Experts also noted that understanding the principle of the protein that is part of the wasp venom will help adapt it to human treatment. As already noted, the venom reacts exclusively to cancer cells and does not harm healthy tissues, which indicates that drugs based on such venom can be safe for people. However, scientists still have a lot of work ahead, since more than one experiment needs to be conducted to confirm all the experts' assumptions and prove not only the effectiveness, but also the safety of such drugs.
By the way, the ability of the Brazilian wasp venom was discovered a long time ago, more than 5 years ago, when a group of specialists discovered that the substances contained in the insect's venom literally tear malignant cells apart.
Continued research in this area showed that such poison effectively fights such oncological diseases as leukemia, prostate cancer, bladder cancer. However, at that time, scientists were unable to determine the principle by which the toxins act.
Paul Beals and a team of scientists from a British university decided to continue the work of their colleagues and find out how wasp venom works.
To achieve this goal, the scientists tracked the effects of the poison on cancer and normal cells at the molecular level.
Experts have suggested that the selective action of wasp toxins may be related to the cell membrane, since the structure of normal and malignant cells differs significantly.
The membrane of normal cells contains two layers of fats with different molecular compositions; when they transform into a malignant cell, the composition of the membrane is disrupted and quite often molecules of one layer of fats end up in the other.
Beals and his team found that phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine appear in the outer shell of the cancer cell, and they are the ones that attract the poison molecules.
Then the poison, attaching to the cancer cell, makes the structure of the shell porous, in other words, "leaky", while the size of the pores constantly increases, as does the number of molecules that destroy malignant cells. As a result, the shell dissolves, and the cell dies.
Experts hope that the venom of the Brazilian wasp (or one of its components) could become the basis for future anti-cancer drugs, and scientists also believe that a synthetic analogue could be developed.
A poison-based medicine, according to scientists, will be much less toxic and cause fewer side effects, and it will also be possible to avoid the death of a huge number of healthy cells, which is currently happening to patients in oncology clinics who are undergoing the most effective treatment at the moment - radiotherapy and chemotherapy.