Tumour‐targeting bacteria‐based cancer therapies for increased specificity and improved outcome

Abstract

‘You have cancer’ – a devastating diagnosis that still strikes patients hard. Despite substantial improvements of standard therapies over the years, there is still no general cure available. Here, we review the revival of an old concept – the use of bacteria as cancer therapeutics. Bacteria‐mediated tumor therapy has great potential to evolve into a powerful tool against malignant solid tumors.

LITESEC-T3SS - Light-controlled protein delivery into eukaryotic cells with high spatial and temporal resolution

“…However, the T3SS indiscriminately injects cargo proteins into contacting host cells. Lack of targetability is therefore a main obstacle in the further development and application of this method 20,21 . Previous methods to control the activity of the T3SS relied on controlled expression of one or all components of the injectisome.…”

“…T3SS inject effector proteins into any eukaryotic host cell as soon as they are in contact. Lack of target specificity is therefore a main obstacle in the further development and application of T3SS-based protein delivery systems 20,21 .…”

Synthetic consortia of nanobody‐coupled and formatted bacteria for prophylaxis and therapy interventions targeting microbiome dysbiosis‐associated diseases and co‐morbidities

“…Another potential application of particular interest in relation to the current antibiotic resistance threat is to combine expression of Nbs specific for surface localized Ags of pathogenic bacteria, and antibacterial products, such as microcins (Hwang et al ., ) or toxins delivered by type 6 secretion systems (Alcoforado Diniz et al ., ; Chassaing and Cascales, ), in order to target and kill pathogens, and hence reduce disease severity and duration. A particularly interesting potential application of Nb engineered bacteria is in tumour imaging and therapy using bacteria exhibiting tropisms for tumours (Felgner et al ., ): Piñero‐Lambea et al . () report that non‐pathogenic E. coli bacteria displaying synthetic adhesins against tumour cells effectively colonize solid tumours at doses two‐orders of magnitude lower than those needed with control bacteria, suggesting a means of reducing the risks of this type of bacterial therapy (Chien et al ., ).…”

The contribution of microbial biotechnology to economic growth and employment creation

“…There are a number of parameters that can be taken into consideration for assessing the innovation level of a particular sector, including the annual number of patent applications/research papers published/scientific meetings, the rate of creation of new dedicated university departments, rate of creation of start-ups, and by all these parameters, biotechnology is seen to be highly innovative. For a current snapshot of innovations in diverse sectors of microbial biotechnology, the reader is directed to the contributions published in this issue, particularly those by (Alvarez and Fernandez, 2017;Caselli, 2017;Cordero et al, 2017;D€ urre, 2017;Felgner et al, 2017;Garcia, 2017;Godoy et al, 2017;Gurry, 2017;Lee, 2017;Li and Gadd, 2017;de Lorenzo, 2017;Macaskie and Orozco, 2017;Narancic and O'Connor, 2017;Nealson, 2017;Ramos, 2017;Schmidt-Dannert, 2017;Sherry et al, 2017;Trivedi et al, 2017;Verstraete and Devrieze, 2017;Webster, 2017)see also SDG 8.3 Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small-and mediumsized enterprises, including through access to financial services (see e.g. United Nations, 2015a,b).…”