Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

A review of the anticancer properties of bee products and their molecular mechanisms: An overview on lung cancer

Abdulwahab Alamri

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Hail, Hail 81442, Saudi Arabia;

For correspondence:- Email: a.alamry@uoh.edu.sa Tel:+966503203063

Accepted: 16 July 2021 Published: 31 August 2021

Citation: Alamri A. A review of the anticancer properties of bee products and their molecular mechanisms: An overview on lung cancer. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(8):1765-1774 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i8.30

© 2021 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the world, and it represents a significant percentage of all diagnosed cancers. Despite better clinical outcomes associated with current drugs, lung cancer has a worse survival rate than any of the other commonly occurring malignancies. Evidence suggests that natural products offer promising potential for improving the current treatment approaches and/or developing novel treatment strategies. Bee products such as honey, propolis, and venom have been reported to exert anti-cancer effects on a variety of human cancer cell lines, thereby paving the way for a wide range of treatment possibilities. The current review focuses on the cytotoxic effects of bee bioactive compounds on all types of cancer, and the molecular pathways by which they might reduce tumor cell growth or trigger apoptosis of cancer cells, with particular reference to lung cancer. This strategy could potentially improve the efficacy of current remedies, reduce the doses of chemotherapy drugs, and decrease adverse effects of chemotherapy drugs. Furthermore, in vitro studies on anti-cancer properties of bee products are carefully reviewed. The results reveal that bee products have the potential to become effective treatment agents against many forms of cancer in the future.

Keywords: Lung cancer, Natural product, Bee product, Anti-tumour