A team of scientists from the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) have discovered that a wasp with a considerably painful sting could be a very effective tool against cancer . And it is that the venom of the Polybia paulista , commonly known as paulistinha, contains a molecule capable of attacking cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. The study has been published in the Biophysical Journal .
The wasp in question, native to southeastern Brazil, lives in large communities with hundreds of specimens and its venom is so powerful and so particular that scientists have been studying it for decades .
One of the peptides (molecules formed by the union of several amino acids) known as MP1, allows this wasp to keep the nest safe from bacteria thanks to its powerful antibacterial action and in a 2008 study it was confirmed that it also attacked cancer cells of some types of cancer. But how is the venom able to discriminate and act only against cancer cells?
“All venom peptides are generally cytotoxic [toxic to cells] but not MP1 and have potent bactericidal activity. Both the bactericidal and antitumor action are related to the ability of this peptide to induce leaks in cells by opening pores or fissures in the cell membrane, but by having a positive charge and bacteria and tumor cells have lipids in their membranes with negative charge, electrostatic attraction is the basis for this selectivity ”, explains Joao Ruggiero Neto, co-author of the study.
The process is as simple as it is eye-catching. In healthy cells, lipids are concentrated inside the membrane; in cancerous ones, we see that they are on the outside. This difference is what allows the wasp venom to be able to discriminate between healthy and cancerous cells .
To test this theory , the researchers used three models of cell membranes , discovering that the peptide from wasp venom synthesized in the laboratory binds to cancer cells with excess lipids in their membranes and not to healthy cells.
“Cancer therapies that attack by the composition of cell membrane lipids could represent a whole new class of anticancer drugs. It could be very useful in the development of new combination therapies, where different drugs are used simultaneously to treat cancer, attacking different parts of the cancer cell at the same time ”, says Paul Beales, co-author of the study.
The next step in the research will be tests with cell cultures and later with animals.
Image credit: Paulista State University
