title: Microbial-based therapy of cancer: current progress and future prospects.
abstract: The use of bacteria in the regression of certain forms of cancer has been recognized for more than a century. Much effort, therefore, has been spent over the years in developing wild-type or modified bacterial strains to treat cancer. However, their use at the dose required for therapeutic efficacy has always been associated with toxicity problems and other deleterious effects. Recently, the old idea of using bacteria in the treatment of cancer has attracted considerable interest and new genetically engineered attenuated strains as well as microbial compounds that might have specific anticancer activity without side effects are being evaluated for their ability to act as new anticancer agents. This involves the use of attenuated bacterial strains and expressing foreign genes that encode the ability to convert non-toxic prodrugs to cytotoxic drugs. Novel strategies also include the use of bacterial products such as proteins, enzymes, immunotoxins and secondary metabolites, which specifically target cancer cells and cause tumor regression through growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest or apoptosis induction. In this review we describe the current knowledge and discuss the future directions regarding the use of bacteria or their products, in cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (IBB), Center for Biological and Chemical Engineering, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bernardes
authors.forename: Raquel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seruca
authors.forename: Ananda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Chakrabarty
authors.forename: Arsenio M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fialho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001691:Biological Therapy; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000382:microbiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001427:Bacterial Toxins