Chinese scientists use E coli to fight breast tumours from within in mice study
The targeted cancer therapy using bacteria could be much less toxic than traditional treatments, research team says in paper
Chinese scientists have engineered E coli bacteria into a novel cancer therapy that colonises tumours, produces an existing drug on-site and delivers it directly – reducing the toxic side effects of traditional chemotherapy.
The research, performed on mice with breast cancer, paves the way for targeted cancer treatments in future, according to the scientists from Shandong University in Qingdao, eastern China.
Escherichia coli (E coli) is a group of bacteria commonly found in the gut. While most strains are harmless, some strains cause watery diarrhoea, vomiting and a fever.
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The Chinese team’s study, published on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Biology, examined a strain called E coli Nissle 1917 (EcN).
The strain is named after German doctor Alfred Nissle, who isolated it from the faeces of a healthy soldier during an outbreak of diarrhoea in World War I.
Nissle later developed a probiotic formulation containing the strain, which is used to treat gastrointestinal diseases including diarrhoea.
In addition to its known role in the gut, scientists have been exploring it as a promising candidate to distribute cancer treatment.
The probiotic strain showed “the capacity to both accumulate and proliferate within solid tumours, which makes it a highly promising live vector for application in bacterial cancer therapy”, the Chinese team wrote.