title: Colicins and their potential in cancer treatment.
abstract: Colicins are a family of antibacterial cytotoxins produced by Escherichia coli and released into the environment to reduce competition from other bacterial strains. Colicins kill the target cell by a variety of effects that include depolarisation of the cytoplasmic membrane, a non-specific DNase activity, a highly specific RNase activity or by inhibition of murein synthesis. This review summarises some important findings that implicate colicins as potential anti-tumor agents. Colicins appear to inhibit proliferation of tumor cell lines in a colicin-type--and cell line-dependent fashion and are more toxic to tumor cells than to normal cells within the body. This opens a potential for using bacterial colicins in combating cancer and raises a number of questions concerning the mechanism of action of colicins in targeting tumor cells, their specificity and applicability as anti-tumor therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Institutes of Molecular Biology, University of Witten/Herdecke, Stockumer Str. 10, 58448 Witten, Germany.
authors.forename: Lorna E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Lancaster
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wintermeyer
authors.forename: Marina V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Rodnina
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003087:Colicins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003087:Colicins