The funnel-web spider – with venom that can kill a human in just 15 minutes, have cancer-fighting properties.
New research led by Greek Australian Dr Maria Ikonomopoulou, has found that Australian funnel-web spiders have anti-cancer properties that can kill melanoma cancer cells in humans and stop them from spreading.
“In our laboratory experiments we found that the Australian funnel-web spider peptide was better at killing melanoma cancer cells and stopping them from spreading than the Brazilian spider peptide. Additionally, the Australian spider peptide did not have a toxic effect on healthy skin cells. When we tested the Australian spider peptide on human melanoma cells in the laboratory, it killed the majority of them.” Dr Maria Ikonomopoulou said.
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