Fabrication and characterization of bee venom-loaded nanoliposomes: Enhanced anticancer activity against different human cancer cell lines via the modulation of apoptosis-related genes

Despite the advancement of cancer therapy, the disease ranks as the most important cause of global death. Bee venom (BV) exhibits different biological properties and showed in vitro cytotoxicity against different malignant cells. However, its application in humans still faces challenges due to its allergic reactions, pain at the admin-istration sites, and other severe toxic reactions such as hemolysis nonspecific cytotoxic activity, tickling sensa-tion, and anaphylaxis during clinical treatment. This study aimed to prepare and characterize BV-loaded nanoliposomes (BV@NLs) and evaluate their anticancer activity against HepG-2, MCF-7, and HCT-116 cell lines in vitro. The prepared BV@NLs were spherical with an average size of 230.9 +/- 5.21 nm and a positive charge zeta-potential of 46.5 mV. BV@NLs showed strong anticancer activity against the three tested cell lines compared to crude BV. It showed selective cytotoxicity and was more effective against the HCT-116 cell line with IC50 of 4.16 mu g/ml. BV@NLs also modulate the mRNA expression of the apoptosis-related genes. It could be concluded that the use of nanoliposomes as a drug delivery system for BV enhanced the anticancer activity in vitro against HepG-2, MCF-7, and HCT-116 cell lines.