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Scientists are developing bacteria that can actually eat cancerous tumors from the inside out, a futuristic approach that targets areas traditional therapies can’t reach. This development comes from bioengineeers at Canada’s University of Waterloo and is published in ACS Synthetic Biology. 

Their approach utilizes an bioengineered Clostridium bacterium genetically modified to not only thrive inside oxygen-starved tumor centers but also in outer tumor layers where more oxygen is present. The modified bacterium only becomes able to live and proliferate where more oxygen is present after its numbers reach a given level. This prevents its dangerous spread throughout the body. These rapidly proliferating intratumor bacteria hog nutrients literally starving and killing the tumor. 

The tumor-killing effectiveness of this system has only been demonstrated in laboratory animals. The next step are carefully-controlled clinical trials to demonstrate safety and effectiveness in humans.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00628

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260224023101.htm

#bacteria #cancer #clostridium