Bee venom cures HIV is the latest development in the fight against the std as research using nanoparticles with bee venom found it has the power to kill off HIV cells.
According to Washington University, bee venom cures HIV as research is being done on a toxin that is found in the venom. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have found that the toxin targets HIV cells while leaving the surrounding healthy cells alone. While research is still ongoing, this is a crucial step toward finding a cure for the disease that has affected millions of people all over the world.
Nanoparticles With Bee Venom Cures HIV
Bee Venom Cures HIV – Nanoparticles With Bee Venom Kills Off HIV – photo from Wikimedia
Researchers state that they want to develop a vaginal gel with the bee venom toxin in order to prevent HIV from spreading. Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine, stated, “Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection.”
The bee venom cures HIV due to the toxin melittin. Melittin has the ability to get through the protective layer that surrounds the HIV cell. Melittin is so powerful, that is also can be used to kill tumor cells according to the paper’s senior author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences.
What is most interesting about melittin loaded onto the nanoparticles is that they only attack diseased cells. Because Hood added protective bumpers to the surface of the nanoparticles, they simply bounce off when coming into contact with a normal healthy cell as healthy cells are large. However, because HIV is much smaller than the nanoparticle, HIV fits between the bumpers and makes contact with the nanoparticle which then releases the bee venom toxin.
Hood states,
“Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope. The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus. We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV. Theoretically, there isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus. The basic particle that we are using in these experiments was developed many years ago as an artificial blood product. It didn’t work very well for delivering oxygen, but it circulates safely in the body and gives us a nice platform that we can adapt to fight different kinds of infections.”
Bee venom cures HIV is still in the developmental stages. However, Hood says that using melittin with nanoparticles for preventative measures against HIV is in the near future after more testing and research is conducted.
Bee Venom Cures HIV – Nanoparticles With Bee Venom Kills Off HIV.
