Evaluation of the potential of bee venom as a metastasis supressor agent in metastatic breast cancer

Bee venom is a natural compound that can be used in many diseases. It is known to have cytotoxic properties in cancer treatments. However, targeting only cytotoxicity is insufficient in the fight against cancer. Inhibiting the metastasis feature of cancer cells is also very important. Although there is limited information on the metastasis inhibition capacity of bee venom, in our pioneering study we showed that bee venom prevents cell migration in cancer cells. In this project, our goal is to determine the mechanism of this anti-metastatic feature at the gene level. For this purpose, the expression of metastasis suppressor BRMS1, KAI1/CD82, DRG1 genes, which had no symptoms, was analyzed. The expression levels of EGFR, which can induce metastasis, as well as the WNT7B oncogene, were also analyzed. Bee venom was applied as a whole, and the melittin molecule, which is contained in a significant amount of bee venom, was also applied separately. Bee venom and melittin have been compared to the common chemotherapy agent Cisplatin. In this project, for the first time, it was determined whether bee venom and melittin have the potential to inhibit metastasis through the ability of the genes in question to inhibit EGFR, and therefore, pioneering findings were obtained on whether bee venom and melittin regulate the interaction of these genes in metastatic breast cancer.