Game-changing most cancers discovery sees micro organism ‘eat tumours from the within out’
Scientists have engineered soil bacteria to ‘eat’ cancer from the inside, using a clever genetic switch to help them survive and devour tumours without dying off
Scientists are deploying a bug to hunt down and destroy cancerous growths(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
Boffins have discovered a way to turn common soil bacteria into a weapon that eats deadly cancer tumours from the inside out. In a potentially game-changing move, scientists are deploying a specific bug, Clostridium sporogenes, to hunt down and destroy cancerous growths that are otherwise hard to reach with traditional medicine.
The clever treatment targets the “dead zones” at the heart of solid tumours. Because these areas are starved of oxygen, they provide the perfect breeding ground for the bacteria to feast and multiply.
The project, led by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, uses synthetic biology to transform the bacteria into a biological hit squad.
Dr Marc Aucoin, professor of chemical engineering at Waterloo, told SciTechDaily: “Bacteria spores enter the tumour, finding an environment where there are lots of nutrients and no oxygen, which this organism prefers, and so it starts eating those nutrients and growing in size.
“We are now colonising that central space and the bacterium is essentially ridding the body of the tumour.”
Until now, the breakthrough faced a major hurdle as the bacteria would die as soon as they reached the oxygen-rich outer edges of a tumour, leaving some cancer cells alive.
To fix this, the team upgraded the bug with a gene from a hardier relative, allowing it to survive just long enough to finish the job.
But to ensure the bacteria don’t go rogue and grow in the bloodstream, the researchers installed a biological switch called quorum sensing.
This ensures the oxygen-shield only turns on once enough bacteria have gathered inside the tumour to start the attack.
Dr Brian Ingalls, professor of applied mathematics, compared the complex genetic engineering to building a computer.
He said: “Using synthetic biology, we built something like an electrical circuit, but instead of wires we used pieces of DNA. Each piece has its job. When assembled correctly, they form a system that works in a predictable way.”
The team has already proven they can make the bacteria survive oxygen and have successfully tested the switch system.
The next step in the possible medical revolution is to combine the features into one “super-bug” for preclinical trials.
The project originally kicked off under PhD student Bahram Zargar, supervised by Ingalls and retired professor Dr Pu Chen. If successful, it could offer a radical new hope in the fight against the UK’s biggest killer.
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