BEE VENOM KILLS HIV CELLS

An ancient Chinese medicine protocol known as apitherapy appears to be

making a resurgence in modern times, as scientist continue to undercover the many
amazing healing powers of bees and the substances they produce. And a new study
recently published in the journal antiviral therapy affirms this, having found that bee
venom, which is release during a bee sting, may hold the key to targeting and
destroying HIV.
As reported by U.S. news & World Report, scientists from the Washington
University (WU) school of medicine in St. Louis Missouri identified the presence of a
compound known as Melittin that they say exhibits powerful anti-HIV effects. The
Bee Venom Toxin was visibly observed to destroy the viral components of HIV while
leaving healthy cells unharmed. For their research, Joshua Hood and his colleagues
from WU attached melittin to nanoparticles that are smaller than HIV. They then
applied the resulting substance to HIV itself, where it was clearly observed to rip
holes in the outer layer of the virus,
effectively destroy it. But because of the
particle size, they didnt healthy cells in
the body.
According to scincenews.org, the team
also applied the solution to healthy
human cells obtained from vaginal walls.
They observed that the substance didnt
visibly affect these healthy cells at all,
illustrating the unique nature of the Bee
Venom in differentiating between the cells
it supposed to attack, and the cells it is
supposed to leave unharmed. Based on
This Finding we propose that Melittin-loaded nanoparticles are well-suited for use as
a topical vaginal HIV virucidal agents, wrote the authors in their paper. Our hope
is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this as a
preventative measure to stop the initial infection.
As far as HIV potentially growing resistance to the treatment later on down
the road, researchers believe such a scenario will never materialize due to the
nature of the mechanistic action. Because bee venom specially destroys the outer
layer of the virus, which results in the virus itself dying, there is little or no chance
of resistance ever developing. Theoretically, melittin nanoparticles are not
susceptible to HIV therapies, added the research team. By disintegrating the
[virus] lipid envelope, [its] less likely to develop resistance to melittin
nanoparticles.