Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY 11439, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Oct 14;21(20):7575. doi: 10.3390/ijms21207575.
Conventional anti-cancer therapy involves the use of chemical chemotherapeutics and radiation and are often non-specific in action. The development of drug resistance and the inability of the drug to penetrate the tumor cells has been a major pitfall in current treatment. This has led to the investigation of alternative anti-tumor therapeutics possessing greater specificity and efficacy. There is a significant interest in exploring the use of microbes as potential anti-cancer medicines. The inherent tropism of the bacteria for hypoxic tumor environment and its ability to be genetically engineered as a vector for gene and drug therapy has led to the development of bacteria as a potential weapon against cancer. In this review, we will introduce bacterial anti-cancer therapy with an emphasis on the various mechanisms involved in tumor targeting and tumor suppression. The bacteriotherapy approaches in conjunction with the conventional cancer therapy can be effective in designing novel cancer therapies. We focus on the current progress achieved in bacterial cancer therapies that show potential in advancing existing cancer treatment options and help attain positive clinical outcomes with minimal systemic side-effects.
传统的抗癌疗法包括使用化学化疗药物和放射治疗，通常作用不具有特异性。耐药性的发展以及药物无法穿透肿瘤细胞已成为当前治疗的主要难题。这导致人们转而研究具有更高特异性和疗效的替代抗肿瘤疗法。人们对探索利用微生物作为潜在的抗癌药物产生了浓厚的兴趣。细菌对缺氧肿瘤环境的固有趋向性及其作为基因和药物治疗载体的遗传工程能力，使得细菌成为对抗癌症的潜在武器。在这篇综述中，我们将介绍细菌抗癌疗法，重点介绍肿瘤靶向和肿瘤抑制中涉及的各种机制。细菌疗法与传统癌症疗法相结合，可以有效地设计新型癌症疗法。我们关注在细菌癌症疗法方面取得的最新进展，这些进展显示出在现有癌症治疗方案方面具有潜力，并有助于获得积极的临床结果，同时最大限度地减少全身副作用。
