Bacteria as Living Microrobots to Fight Cancer
Living Microrobots to fight cancer can be bacteria. The idea of bacteria in the treatment of cancer is not new. One of the earliest reports of bacteria in cancer therapy came from the pioneer of immunotherapy, William Coley, who realized in the late 1800s that some cancer patients also develop skin infections.
Most often, because of this, the danger of radiation and chemotherapy turns into the clinical use of bacteria, cancer treatment has not been developed. The past half-century had the vision and the idea of using bacteria in cancer treatment is even before. The researchers realized that some bacteria have the natural properties of nano-robots - they can search for tumours on their own, and they have a mildly toxic payload that can kill cancer cells.Thus they can be used as living microrobots to fight cancer.
The concept behind this approach, similar to that proposed by Kohli, is that the use of bacteria will stimulate the patient's immune system to fight cancer. Better yet, although Coley is unknown, many bacteria are also able to selectively grow on solid tumours, in the bladder, and elsewhere; Reduced immune surveillance in the hypoxic and acidic environment of the tumour provides anaerobic bacteria with a haven to thrive and thrive. Inside tumours, some bacteria secrete toxins and compete for nutrients with the cancer cells. Bacteria to treat cancer has come into effect away early than we think.
Researchers found little effect beyond the benefits that are still seen in patients with bladder cancer. Micro-therapies minimize the collateral damage to healthy cells, which is common in systemic cancer therapy. By blocking these signalling pathways in tumours, bacteria can sensitize T cells and help kill cancer in a mouse lymphoma model. Bacteria as a cancer treatment are beginning to gain attention from the biotech industry.
The bacteria are recognized and taken up by the antigen-presenting cells entering the tumour, and the STING pathway is activated in these immune cells, which leads to the release of interferon and immune responses, tumor-specific T cells. The effect is based on quorum lysis, which means that when a population detects a critical density of bacterial cells, they lyse and release the drug while surviving bacteria continue to multiply until they reach the critical threshold for recurrence.
These bacteria will naturally biosynthesize magnetic nanoparticles on their membranes, which the researchers investigate allows the use of magnetic fields to direct bacteria to tumours and tumours, where they can release therapeutic agents or act as a contrast medium for imaging. Researchers have managed to grow bacteria that carry or produce anti-cancer compounds - less than 1% of these bacteria reach the tumour on their own. In a mouse model of breast cancer, these anaerobic bacteria were found to accumulate in the hypoxic microenvironment of tumours. The subsequent improvement in cytotoxin production resulted in approximately 80% inhibition of tumour growth.
Michael Shapiro and his colleagues at the California Institute of Technology have grown bacteria that have been genetically modified to express so-called acoustic marker genes that encode components of hollow structures called hydro-acoustic air bubbles and create echoes that allow them to locate bacteria in the body. The chain of iron oxide nanoparticles is enclosed in a lipid layer.
Martel's group also took advantage of the fact that anaerobic bacteria tend to hide in tumours due to their oxygen-poor environment, and combined this natural search mechanism with an externally directed magnetic field, demonstrating the accumulation and penetration of therapy into mouse tumour cells.
Prospects for the development and clinical translation of genetically modified bacteria for the prevention and treatment of cancer. The use of probiotic bacteria for cancer treatment is also being studied. They are considered safe and some of them have anti-cancer properties. The benefits of these properties of bacteria, the different types of therapeutic interventions can be useful for cancer treatment. Complementary engineering strategies can increase the effectiveness of genetically engineered bacteria in fighting the disease.
