435: Invader Introducing Infrared Invokes Immunity

This episode: Combining Salmonella with something called
photoimmunotherapy to attack tumors in multiple ways!


Download Episode (8.2 MB, 11.9 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Shimwellia blattae



Takeaways


Distinguishing healthy from unhealthy tissue is one of the
big challenges when dealing with cancer. Since cancer is
derived from healthy tissue, there are many similarities
between them that make it hard to target it specifically.
This is especially important when cancer is spread in
multiple places throughout the body, as opposed to a single
tumor that can be removed locally.


 


In this study, bacteria modified to make them safer were
injected into mice with tumors. The bacteria alone were
capable of doing some damage to the tumors, and this damage
happened to make the tumors darker. Using this color change,
the scientists targeted the tumors with lasers to heat them
up and kill them in an isolated manner. This had the added
benefit of inducing an immune response against the cancer
that could target it throughout the body.


Journal Paper:
Yi X, Zhou H, Chao Y, Xiong S, Zhong J, Chai Z, Yang K, Liu Z.
2020. Bacteria-triggered tumor-specific thrombosis to enable
potent photothermal immunotherapy of cancer. Science Advances
6:eaba3546.


Other interesting stories:



Bacteria could help make nylon more sustainably

Glowing bacteria living in nematodes that kill insects may
also interact with and protect plant roots (paper)




 


Email questions or comments to bacteriofiles at gmail dot
com. Thanks for listening!


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