Objective: Breast cancer is the most common case of cancers. Apitheraphy has been traditionally used for abundance diseases. This study aims to evaluate and compare the anti-breast cancer activity of melittin from Indonesia's Apic cerana as a potential drug for treating breast cancer.
Methods: Apis cerana bee venom (BV) was collected from a bee farm in Cikurutung, Bandung using an electrical venom device. The BV was then purified using the ÄKTA Start system and HiTrap™ SP HP cation exchange chromatography column. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was used to identify melittin based on its molecular mass and lowry's protein assay to measure melittin concentration. Melittin cytotoxicity was measured with brine shrimp lethality test (BSLT), while MCF-7 breast cancer cells MTT assay was used to measure its anti-breast cancer activity, based on inhinition rate.
Results: 95.432 μg/mL melittin is purified from 62.8 mg/L BV, using cation exchange chromatography. Melittin in vitro analysis with MCF-7 MTT assay is used to determine anti-breast cancer activity in dose dependent manner. Furthermore, melttin BSLT result showed a LC50 16.67675 μg/mL. Therefore, the MTT assay was conducted in 5, 10 and 15 μg/mL with MCF-7 inhibition values of 0.768 ± 0.014, 3.303 ± 0.011, and 35.714 ± 0.009 %, respectively.
Conclusion: Indonesia's Apis cerana has the potential to be used as a therapeutic peptide for breast cancer treatment.
Keywords: Apis cerana; MCF-7 Cells; anti-cancer; melittin.