Scientists create bacteria capable of devouring cancerous tumors from within
Canadian scientists have proposed an innovative approach to cancer treatment, using genetically modified bacteria that literally destroy tumors from within.
A team of Canadian researchers.
The idea relies on the ability of some microorganisms to survive only in an oxygen-free environment (anaerobic conditions). These are precisely the conditions characteristic of the center of many solid cancerous tumors, where dead cells are concentrated and oxygen is practically absent. This is reported by the Telegram channel cybulinka.
The main protagonists of the study were the soil bacteria Clostridium sporogenes. In their natural environment, they can only live without oxygen. When spores of these microorganisms enter a tumor, they begin to actively multiply there, feeding on nutrients from its core. However, upon reaching the periphery of the tumor, where there is more oxygen, the bacteria die, failing to completely destroy the cancerous cells.
To solve this problem, scientists altered the bacteria's genome, adding a gene from a related species that tolerates oxygen better.
However, a new risk emerged: if modified C. sporogenes gain "uncontrolled resistance" to oxygen, they could begin to spread throughout the body via the bloodstream, posing a serious danger.
To keep the process under strict control, researchers used a natural system of chemical communication between bacteria (known as quorum sensing). Thanks to this mechanism, the oxygen resistance gene is activated exclusively when the concentration of bacteria inside the tumor reaches a certain threshold.
Scientists still have a lot of work to do and need to verify the method's effectiveness during preclinical trials. If the approach proves successful, it could open up an entirely new direction in the therapy of oncological diseases.
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