The venom of a wasp found in Brazil may kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells.

A study published in Biophysical Journal found that the venom of the social wasp Polybia paulista produces a toxin called MP1 (Polybia-MP1) that interacts with lipids found on the surface of cancer cells and creates holes that allow molecules to leak out that are critical for the cell to function.

In healthy cells, fat molecules stay inside the cell and are able to avoid the toxin.

"Cancer therapies that attack the lipid composition of the cell membrane would be an entirely new class of anticancer drugs," says co-senior study author Paul Beales, of the United Kingdom's University of Leeds.

"This could be useful in developing new combination therapies, where multiple drugs are used simultaneously to treat a cancer by attacking different parts of the cancer cells at the same time."

In mouse studies, MP1 has been shown to inhibit the growth of prostate and bladder cancer cells, as well as multi-drug resistant leukemic cells.

"As it has been shown to be selective to cancer cells and non-toxic to normal cells in the lab, this peptide has the potential to be safe, but further work would be required to prove that," said Beales.