The cost of publication in Journal of Biomedical Science is borne by the National Science Council, Taiwan.
Review
Bacteria in cancer therapy: a novel experimental strategy
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* Corresponding author: B Medhi drbikashus@yahoo.com
1 Department of Pharmacology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India
2 Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Journal of Biomedical Science 2010, 17:21 doi:10.1186/1423-0127-17-21
Published: 23 March 2010Abstract
Resistance to conventional anticancer therapies in patients with advanced solid tumors has prompted the need of alternative cancer therapies. Moreover, the success of novel cancer therapies depends on their selectivity for cancer cells with limited toxicity to normal tissues. Several decades after Coley's work a variety of natural and genetically modified non-pathogenic bacterial species are being explored as potential antitumor agents, either to provide direct tumoricidal effects or to deliver tumoricidal molecules. Live, attenuated or genetically modified non-pathogenic bacterial species are capable of multiplying selectively in tumors and inhibiting their growth. Due to their selectivity for tumor tissues, these bacteria and their spores also serve as ideal vectors for delivering therapeutic proteins to tumors. Bacterial toxins too have emerged as promising cancer treatment strategy. The most potential and promising strategy is bacteria based gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy. Although it has shown successful results in vivo yet further investigation about the targeting mechanisms of the bacteria are required to make it a complete therapeutic approach in cancer treatment.