Voice-controlled bacteria fight cancer?

Scientists at Caltech may have a better solution: genetically engineered, sound-controlled bacteria to seek out and destroy cancer cells

"The goal of this technology is to harness the ability of engineered bacteria to infiltrate tumors while simultaneously activating them using ultrasound to release potent drugs inside the tumor," said Mikhail Shapiro

The starting point for their research was an E.

To turn the bacteria into useful tools for treating cancer, the team engineered them to contain two new sets of genes

By inserting temperature-dependent nanobody genes, the team was able to create bacterial strains that produced tumor-suppressing nanobodies only when heated to a trigger temperature of 42-43 degrees Celsius

But how do you heat bacteria that are located in a specific location, such as where a tumor might grow deep inside the body?

For this, the research team used focused ultrasound (FUS)

"Focused ultrasound allows us to specifically activate this therapy inside the tumor

To test whether the bacterial strains they designed worked as expected, the team injected bacterial cells into laboratory mice with tumors

Through a series of experiments, the researchers found that mice treated with the bacteria and ultrasound had significantly slower tumor growth than mice treated with ultrasound alone, bacteria alone, and mice that were not treated at all

However, the team also found that in the treated mice, some tumors did not shrink at all

"This is a very promising result because it shows that we can deliver the right treatment in the right place at the right time

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Mohamad H.