'Magical' royal bee jelly offers promise to combat cancer: Study
New York, July 23 : Royal jelly -- a natural bee product -- long known for its mysterious growth effects on future queen honey bees, while hailed by some as an anti-ageing, cholesterol-lowering super supplement, might also help fight cancer, finds new research.
Royal jelly also called "bee milk", looks like white snot. Besides water, it also contains a combination of proteins and sugars.
The findings showed this "queen magic" affects cell signalling and growth in cancer cells.
However, how this actually happens and its potential benefit to humans, has remained a mystery to scientists.
"The exact structure of the key protein in royal jelly remains unknown. But it is expected to act through the epidermal growth factor (or EGF) receptor -- the main pathway targeted by cancer therapeutics today," Daryl Klein, Assistant Professor at Yale University in Connecticut, US, said in a statement.
Klein's lab studies cell signalling, and how these signals can be "tuned" in different ways.
Using commercial jelly shipped from China, initial studies from Klein's lab have started to resolve the oligomer structure of MRJP-1 (major royal jelly protein).
However, the scientists found that resolution stalled around 11 Angstroms -- not enough to reveal the potential secrets hidden in the jelly.
They fear that the commercially available product may have been the limiting factor.
"We've bought commercial royal jelly, but it goes through a lot of handling -- freezing, thawing and re-freezing -- before it gets to us, which could affect the ultimate resolution we can see in this protein and how we can do functional tests on it," added Tongqing Li, post-doctoral associate at the varsity.
Researchers are now hoping to extract royal jelly from the university's campus to find out "how it modifies cell growth across different species, and how it might modify cancer cell signalling," Klein said.
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B'desh court issues arrest warrant against Sheikh Hasina, her sister Rehana, British MP Rizwana
Graft cases
Dhaka, Apr 13 (PTI): A court in Bangladesh on Sunday issued arrest warrants against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, British MP Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, and 50 others in connection with the alleged illegal acquisition of land by abusing political power.
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Zakir Hossain passed the order after considering three separate chargesheets filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.
Judge Hossain fixed April 27 to review reports on the execution of the arrest orders, the newspaper quoted ACC Assistant Director (Prosecution) Aminul Islam as saying.
Citing court sources, Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo reported that the ACC recently submitted chargesheets to the court against 53 people in three separate cases on corruption charges in plot allocation.
As all 53 accused, including Hasina, were absconding, the court issued arrest warrants against them, the paper said.
On April 10, the same court issued arrest warrants against Hasina, her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, and 17 others in a separate corruption case related to Rajuk plot allotments.
Putul has been serving as the South East Asian regional director for the World Health Organisation (WHO) based in New Delhi since November 1, 2023.
On January 13, ACC filed a case against Rehana for allegedly acquiring a 10-katha plot in the Purbachal New Town Project through abuse of authority. The case named 15 accused, including Hasina and Rehana's daughter British lawmaker Tulip Rizwana Siddiq. Rehana did not hold any official position in the past regime.
After the investigation, ACC submitted a chargesheet on March 10 against 17 individuals, adding two more names.
In a second case, ACC filed charges against Azmina Siddiq for similar irregularities in acquiring a 10-katha plot in Purbachal. This case initially listed 16 accused, including Tulip Siddiq and Sheikh Hasina. The final chargesheet, submitted on March 10, named 18 people.
The ACC filed a third case the same day against Rehana's son Radwan Mujib Siddiq, accused of obtaining a plot using political influence. Tulip Siddiq and Sheikh Hasina were among the 16 named in the initial complaint. The final chargesheet also included 18 accused.
Hasina is also accused of numerous charges like mass murders and crimes against humanity, enforced disappearances while these cases were being filed with Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal.
Hasina’s 16-year-long Awami League regime was toppled on August 5 last year in a student-led violent mass uprising. Since then, 77-year-old Hasina has been living in India.
