Can HIV Viruses be Killed by Bee Sting?

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A scientific item has been circulating online since 2013 and a number of similar claims with some variations presented this specific claim that HIV can be killed by the bee sting venom. It can provide significant amount of help to control AIDS. This item presented reference of 2013 study, which was published in the journal “Antiviral Therapy”. The paper indicated that the major objective of this research was to collect an evidence of concept for a traditional anti-HIV gel using melittin. Melitting is a peptide (a compound containing two or more amino acids), in which the carboxyl group of one acid connected with other amino group. The peptide was discovered in bee toxin and it can be served as a preventive method against HIV, but it should be applied before any sexual activity.

The destruction of viruses by melittin shouldn’t be considered major target of this research. Melittin is a cytolytic and it can easily destroy cells by empowering its penetrability. It is important that Melittin can destroy viruses efficiently, but it also destroy human cells and it has been considered more critical situation. The major achievement of this study was the ability of researchers to hook up “melittin” to complicated nanoparticles. It allows the compound to specifically target HIV viruses without making contact with non-viral cells. The senior author of the paper indicated that the study also proved that melittin-loaded “nanoparticles” can kill tumor cells effectively. Most scientific experts believe that researchers have achieved most important goal and it would provide help in the future research.