title: MDR-selective microbial-based therapy: a novel approach to cancer treatment.
abstract: Microbial-based therapy of cancer is one of the earliest non-surgical anticancer therapies. The main limitation of such therapies is the toxicity of the therapeutic dose. This article discusses a novel approach that exploits cancer multidrug resistance (MDR) to provide a safer microbial-based therapy. As multidrug resistant cells can only contain limited amounts of a variety of susceptible drugs including certain antibiotics, we can take advantage of MDR to create a micro-environment (antibiotic free) that favors growth of intracellular bacteria within cancer cells. Thus, this approach targets cancer cells and spares normal cells (shielded by antibiotic): providing a more selective thus safer anticancer treatment. This article also explores the potentials of Chlamydia pneumoniae as an anti-cancer agent in this MDR-selective microbial-based therapy: its unique life cycle and the immune response to its infection suggest that it could be used directly, in the proposed approach, without any pre-requirements.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Pharmacy, Ainshams University, Cairo, Egypt. Omar.elkadi@live.com
authors.forename: Omar Anwar
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Elkadi
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents
keywords: BCG; Bacillus Calmete–Guerin; CADD; MBT; MDR; MDR-selective bacterial therapy; MHC; MIC; MRP; Multidrug resistance-associated protein; P-glycoprotein; Pgp; chlamydia protein associating with death domains.; major histocompatibility complex; minimum inhibitory concentration; multidrug resistance