Attack of the Nanobees

Infinitesimally small "nanobees" are loaded with poison and sent off to do their masters' bidding.

Their masters, of course, are scientists working in the lab — probably late into the night. And who knows? Maybe their assistants all have names like Igor.

Wondering what the tiny bees do? According to researcher Samuel Wickline, M.D., who heads the Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Washington University, in a Newswise article: "We've shown that the bee toxin gets taken into the cells where it pokes holes in their internal structures."

Sounds scary, no?

In fact, the nanobees are part of an impressive new medical project which uses bee toxin to kill tumor cells. The venom is attached to tiny nanospheres, which researchers affectionately call nanobees.So far, the approach has been used successfully against cancers in mice. Researchers delivered "nanobee stings" directly to tumors, avoiding interaction with healthy cells. The result: Tumors either stopped growing or actually shrank.

Even more impressive, researchers were able to develop a "targeting" method which directs nanobees to the fast-growing blood vessels around tumors. As a result, according to the Newswise article, "the nanobees were guided to precancerous skin lesions that were rapidly increasing their blood supply. Injections of targeted nanobees reduced the extent of proliferation of precancerous skin cells in the mice by 80 percent."

This novel approach to cancer prevention and treatment has tremendous potential. In fact, it may bee the next big buzz in the medical world!

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng