Bond, Jake Bond: A Science and Technology BlogA Harmless Soil-Dwelling Bacteria Might Be Used As A Vessel To Target Cancer Tumors
February 9th 2012 00:34
Link: itechmedicaltoday.com
Clostridium Sporeanges
Chemotherapy doesn't work. It destroys healthy and cancerous cells alike. It has no preference and is as much of a hit and miss therapy as anything. In the last ten years scientists have even come to find out that while chemotherapy does destroy tumors, it doesn't destroy all of the tumor. See, chemotherapy only kills fast replicating cells, not slow replicating ones. Why does this matter you say? Well, come to find out, there is a special type of cell that exists in a tumor, cancer stem cells. These cells are responsible for the tumor metastasizing (spreading into the blood and other organs) and are only present in about 1% of the tumor.And guess what? They are slow to replicate. So while chemotherapy does kill most of the tumor, it doesn't kill these cells and this is why the cancer can come back even when the tumor is gone. There are newer drugs out there that do kill cancer stem cells. However, we have had no way of targeting the tumor. Until now. A harmless soil-dwelling bacteria called Clostridium Sporogenes is being tested in human patients to target solid tumors. The spores of the bacteria are injected into the tumor and they only grow in the tumor. A anti-cancer pro-drug that is in an inactivated form is injected separately into the patient and travels through the body and upon arriving at the site of the tumor, it gets activated by specific bacteria enzymes that the bacteria have produced. This allows the drug to destroy only the cancer cells in its vicinity. How do these bacteria only target the tumor cells? Well, Professor Nigel Minton, who is leading the research, explains how this therapy naturally fulfils this need. "Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions. When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, i.e. the center of solid tumors. This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific. We can exploit this specificity to kill tumor cells but leave healthy tissue unscathed." This is an amazing way to treat cancer and may be the way to effectively kill cancer stem cells and decrease mortality rates among cancer patients.
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