A common bacteria in the soil activates anticancer drugs

According to the report of the American Physicist Organization Network on September 5, scientists said at the Fall Meeting of the General Society of Microbiology held at New York University in the United States that Clostridium species, a very common species in the soil, can activate anti-cancer drugs to make anti-cancer drugs in the body. Play a role in killing tumor cells, clinically expected to be carried out in 2013.

Scientists explained that after injecting spores of Clostridium botulinum into the human body, it will only survive in solid tumors and produce an enzyme in the tumor. Subsequently, people injected a single anti-cancer drug into the patient's body. When the anti-cancer drug reaches the place where the tumor is located, the bacterial enzyme activates the drug, allowing the drug to kill only the tumor cells in its immediate vicinity. The cells are unharmed. Therefore, this bacteria is expected to become a new anti-cancer guardian.

In view of this, scientists from the University of Nottingham, UK and the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, have made a modified enzyme by genetic modification and integrated the resulting enzyme into the DNA of the Clostridium. in. Subsequently, a large amount of this modified enzyme is produced in the tumor, the amount of modified enzyme is far greater than the previous enzyme, and it is more efficient in activating the anti-cancer properties of the drug.

A basic need for any new form of cancer therapy is that the therapy can kill other healthy cells while effectively killing cancer cells. Professor Nigel Minton, the leader of the study, said that the latest therapies met this need. He said: "Clostridium is a very old bacterium that has appeared before the oxygen-rich air appears on Earth, so it can survive in a low-oxygen environment. When its spores enter cancer patients They will only survive in the anaerobic environment in the center of the tumor. This is a natural phenomenon. It does not require any modification. It is very delicate and exclusive. We can use this exclusion to kill tumor cells while allowing normal healthy cells to grow. Never hurt."

Scientists pointed out that this simple and safe anti-cancer therapy will kill all tumor cells, which is superior to conventional surgery, especially for many high-risk patients or patients whose tumor location is difficult to determine.

Mington said: "We hope to start clinical trials in 2013. If this method is successfully combined with other more traditional methods, it will greatly increase human chances of winning the battle against cancer."