School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, P. R. China.
Institute of Applied Bioresource Research, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Yuhangtang Road 866, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, P. R. China.
Theranostics. 2022 Mar 14;12(6):2833-2859. doi: 10.7150/thno.70719. eCollection 2022.
The occurrence of microorganisms has been confirmed in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of many different organs. Microorganisms (e.g., phage, virus, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) present in TME modulate TME to inhibit or promote tumor growth in species-dependent manners due to the special physiological and pathological features of each microorganism. Such microorganism-TME interactions have recently been emulated to turn microorganisms into powerful cancer theranostic agents. To facilitate scientists to explore microorganisms-TME interactions further to develop improved cancer theranostics, here we critically review the characteristics of different microorganisms that can be found in TME, their interactions with TME, and their current applications in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Clinical trials of using microorganisms for cancer theranostics are also summarized and discussed. Moreover, the emerging technology of whole-metagenome sequencing that can be employed to precisely determine microbiota spectra is described. Such technology enables scientists to gain an in-depth understanding of the species and distributions of microorganisms in TME. Therefore, scientists now have new tools to identify microorganisms (either naturally present in or introduced into TME) that can be used as effective probes, monitors, vaccines, or drugs for potentially advancing cancer theranostics to clinical applications.
微生物的存在已在许多不同器官的肿瘤微环境（TME）中得到证实。存在于 TME 中的微生物（例如噬菌体、病毒、细菌、真菌和原生动物）由于每种微生物的特殊生理和病理特征，以依赖于物种的方式调节 TME，从而抑制或促进肿瘤生长。最近，人们模拟了这种微生物-TME 相互作用，将微生物转化为强大的癌症治疗诊断试剂。为了促进科学家进一步探索微生物-TME 相互作用以开发改进的癌症治疗诊断方法，在这里我们批判性地回顾了可以在 TME 中发现的不同微生物的特征、它们与 TME 的相互作用以及它们在癌症诊断和治疗中的当前应用。还总结和讨论了使用微生物进行癌症治疗诊断的临床试验。此外，还描述了新兴的全基因组测序技术，该技术可用于精确确定微生物组谱。该技术使科学家能够深入了解 TME 中微生物的种类和分布。因此，科学家现在有了新的工具来识别可以用作有效探针、监测器、疫苗或药物的微生物（无论是自然存在于 TME 中还是引入 TME 中），从而有可能将癌症治疗诊断推进到临床应用。
