Using Dead Bacteria To Kill Colorectal Cancer

Heat-inactivated bacteria might be a safer and simpler way to fight colorectal cancer, scientists say.

AsianScientist (Nov. 16, 2015) – Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have successfully used dead bacteria to kill colorectal cancer cells. Their results have been published in Scientific Reports.

Harvesting the Clostridium sporogenes bacteria found commonly in soil, the team was able to harness the bacteria in its dead form, and its secretions, to destroy colon tumors cells effectively.

Colorectal cancer is the number one cancer in Singapore and the foremost cancer amongst males as stated by Singapore’s Health Promotion Board. It is also the third most common cancer in the world, with about 1.4 million new cases annually, as estimated by the World Cancer Research Fund International.

Traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy do not work well in the colon due to reduced blood flow and the lack of oxygen and nutrient flow in the tumour environment. This is because such therapies rely on oxygen molecules to damage the DNA of cancer cells and blood flow to transport therapeutic drugs to the tumour.

In contrast, the team led by Professor Teoh Swee Hin showed that dead C. sporogenes bacteria can kill tumor cells in an oxygen-starved tumor microenvironment.

Teoh, who is Chair of NTU’s School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering said this discovery opens new doors for the treatment of colon cancer as bacteria therapy is recently gaining interest as an alternative to traditional treatments.

“We found that even when the C. sporogenes bacteria is dead, its natural toxicity continues to kill cancer cells, unlike the conventional chemotherapy drugs which need oxygen to work,” Teoh explained.

“While other research groups have experimented with bacteria therapy to destroy cancer cells, the biggest problem is that live bacteria will grow and proliferate, posing a high risk of infection and increased toxicity to patients. In our study, as the bacteria were already killed by heat, there was no risk of the bacteria multiplying and causing more harm than the desired dose meant to kill colorectal cancer cells.”

The researchers conducted experiments in 3D cell culture which were artificially-created environments, resembling the inside of a human body, unlike most lab experiments which are done on a flat surface in a petri-dish.

In a 72-hour experiment, the inactive bacteria were able to reduce the growth of colon tumor cells by 74 percent. In addition, the team tested the secretions harvested from a live bacteria culture and these secretions reduced growth of colon tumour cells by as much as 83 percent.

Professor James Best, Dean of NTU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, said: “This is a significant discovery that potentially opens a new avenue to tackle this very common cancer, which is difficult to treat after it has spread. While it is early days, this exciting research finding provides hope of a new treatment option for millions of people affected by bowel cancer each year.”

Moving forward, the team is looking to study the specific components of the bacteria which help to kill tumour cells and to develop them into usable therapy such as cancer drugs.

The article can be found at: Bhave et al. (2015) Effect of Heat-Inactivated Clostridium sporogenes and Its Conditioned Media on 3-Dimensional Colorectal Cancer Cell Models.

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Source: Nanyang Technological University.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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