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Monday, 9 April 2018


Cancer Research: Toward Killing Cancer with Bacteria


In the late 1800s, bone surgeon William Coley pioneered the use of bacteria as a cancer treatment after discovering that a cancer patient who suffered a bacterial infection survived longer than expected. Back then, before radiation and chemotherapies prevailed, bacteria injection “was a first line therapy,”

A genetically manipulated version of the gastroenteritis-causing bacteria Salmonella typhimurium is a potent destroyer of mouse tumors, according to a report published today (February 8) in Science Translational Medicine. The paper adds to a growing body of research investigating bacterial cancer treatments, and reveals an immunological mechanism that contributes to bacteria-driven, cancer–killing activity. To boost the potency of the Salmonella, Researchers engineered the bacteria to overexpress a protein proven to induce a strong immune response—flagellin B (a component of the tail-like swimming appendage of some bacteria). Intravenous injections of the flagellin-expressing Salmonella eradicated the experimental tumors in 55 percent of mice, which then remained healthy until the end of the four-month observation period, the researchers reported. Without overexpression of flagellin, the Salmonella initially shrank tumors in the mice, but the tumors tended to regrow. Image result for bacterias

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