ANTICANCER POTENTIAL OF ANIMAL TOXINS: A REVIEW

This review article describes anti-cancer activity of various animal toxins belongs to different animal groups. Cancer is a dreadful disease that is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. For its treatment various chemotherapeutics have been used but these are costlier and show side effects. Animal toxins are noble and unique therapeutic efficacy against various cancer types. These successfully inhibit proliferation of cancer cells in vitro cell cultures as well as inside human body. Animal venom toxins stop cancer cell invasion, cell cycle arrest, proliferation, migration, and invasion, induction of apoptotic activity and neo-vascularization by blocking the signaling pathways. Bee venom toxin mainly melittin shows anticancer effects against ovarian cancer cells. It inhibits cell growth through enhancement of death receptor expressions in the human ovarian cancer cell at a dose of 0.5.2 µg/ml. It also induces apoptotic cell death in dose dependent manner. Animal toxins strongly induce selective cytotoxicity in ovarian cells through apoptotic cell death cells via dual inhibition of the Akt and mTOR signaling pathways. Animal toxins such as serine proteases, PLA2, metalloproteases, phosphatase and esterase activity showed exhibit antineoplastic activity to various cancer cell lines.