Bioprospecting is no new discipline. Long have humans searched for plant and animal parts that could ail illnesses and cure ailments. But now scientists are better equipped than ever to find realistic miracle chemicals created by mother nature herself. And recently, the laboratories have informed us that they’ve discovered a new biochemical, created by Brazilian wasps that can fight cancer cells…
The Universities at Leeds and Sao Paulo have been investigating the interaction of toxins secreted the Polybia paulista, which is part of a large family of South American wasps. The toxins of this Brazilian wasp have been tested against leukemia and other types of cancer of the bladder and prostate.
The results – fascinating. Thus far suggest these toxins, known as MP1, interact with lipids and somehow target the membranes of cancerous cells and destroy them leaving healthy regular cells intact. More specifically, MP1 toxins piggyback on lipids found on cancerous cells before drilling holes in the the bad cell membrane. Such holes cause the cell spill out molecules and genetic code, which render them useless and unable to reproduce. The toxins are not interest in attacking non-cancerous cells because their inner membranes do not expose the lipids that attract MP1.
The potential ramifications of this groundbreaking bioprospecting unearthing could revolutionize the way we fight one of our greatest enemies: Cancer. Who would have thought that wasps – those little bastards – would be the ones to help us on that front?