The aim of all cancer therapies is to kill cancer cells but not healthy cells. This selectivity for tumours is the key to success for curing cancer. The Tangney lab at the Cork Cancer Research Centre in University College Cork has identified a novel strategy to achieve this selectivity by exploiting the natural property of bacteria to grow specifically within tumours. Bacteria represent unique tumour-targeting agents as they can preferentially colonise and proliferate within tumours following systemic administration, where they can produce therapeutic (or imaging) agents exclusively within tumours.
The ideal anti-cancer therapy would selectively eradicate tumours, whilst minimizing side effects to normal tissue. Chemotherapy is aimed at killing cancer cells, but efficacy is poor, and collateral effects (destruction of immune cells, illness etc) can make its use unacceptable. To successfully address the issue of specifying therapeutics solely to tumours, it is necessary to identify unique tumour attributes that separate them from healthy cells. To this end, we have shown that bacteria are naturally capable of achieving this, localising to and growing specifically in tumours/metastases following intravenous injection. Our research focuses on the use of non-disease causing bacteria, such as probiotic bacteria regularly eaten in yoghurts etc.
This projectWe proposes to develop probiotic bacteria that can act as therapeutic production ‘factories’ inside tumours.
