Scorpion venom may include pharmacological substances that have the potential to provide benefits. Multiple scientific investigations have shown that particular scorpion venoms induce apoptosis and inhibit the development of cancerous cells. The present study investigated the potential anticancer properties of the crude venom derived from
Hottentotta saulcyi
(
H. saulcyi
) on both in vivo mice models and in vitro breast carcinoma cells. The venom of scorpions belonging to the species
H. saulcyi
was obtained with the application of electrical stimulation at voltages of 8 and 10 V. The determination of the Average Lethal Dose 50 (LD
50
) was conducted. The present work assessed the in vitro cytotoxicity and morphological characteristics of
H. saulcyi
venom using fluorescence microscopy, MTT assay, and flow cytometry assessment. Additionally, research was performed to assess the cytotoxic effects in vivo on a mouse model with breast cancer. The examination of MCF-7 cells treated with scorpion venom at a microscopic level revealed the existence of cells undergoing apoptosis. The venom of
H. saulcyi
has anticancer properties, as shown by the observation that MCF-7 cells had a 62.12% apoptotic rate when exposed to a dose of 1.47 mg/L. Based on the results obtained, it can be shown that the viability of MCF-7 cells has exhibited a substantial reduction (
P
< 0.01). Furthermore, the findings indicated that the venom of
H. saulcyi
resulted in a significant increase in the synthesis of
TNF-α
,
IL-6
,
IL-10
,
TGF-β
, and
caspase
(
P
< 0.05). The treatment groups administered with
H. saulcyi
venom exhibited a significant augmentation in the expression of proapoptotic genes compared to the control group of healthy individuals. The transcription of the
BCL2
gene exhibited a statistically significant increase in the healthy control group compared to both the healthy venom-treated group (
P
< 0.05) and the malignant venom-treated group (
P
< 0.01). The crude venom of H. saulcyi has considerable promise in demonstrating anticancer properties. Further investigation may be warranted to explore the potential of using
H. saulcyi
crude venom as a medicinal platform for the prevention of breast cancer.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-75183-w.
