No doubt there is enough litaratura which supports the Salmonella bacteria to be considered a human pathogen of the wicked. There are summers when not reported cases of severe Salmonella infections through consumption of raw eggs and chickens. However, Salmonella can harm not only to us – in the future, may even help defend against cancer.
Thanks to this study, researchers may soon have a way to make bacteria migrate towards solid tumors in order to facilitate its destruction. Furthermore, in laboratory mice, the bacteria also find their way toward metastasis, can also help the settlement of cancer.
In the scientific journal PLoS One, Bcientíficos Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany showed how bacteria migrate to tumors. An immune system messenger substance is the housekeeper and causes blood vessels in cancer tissue are permeable allowing the bacteria to conquer and destroy the tumor and the subsequent input streams of blood vessels in the cancerous tissue the death of tumor necrosis. “This blood flow was the starting point for our research,” says Siegfried Weiss, head of Molecular Immunology at the HZI.
“There is an immune messenger present during the inflammation caused by the bacteria that causes this type of reaction. “This messenger is the tumor necrosis factor, TNF-alpha, for short. It is known that immune cells produce TNF-alpha in recognizing invasion by Salmonella, so that alerts other immune cells to the presence of the bacteria. This inflammatory reaction leads to an increased permeability of blood vessels, an action which also occurs in a tumor: TNF-alpha has an easy task, because here the blood vessels in cancer are fundamentally different from healthy arteries or veins . They are built of irregularly shaped, porous, partly blind alleys. A small amount of TNF-alpha is sufficient to dissolve then the walls of blood vessels in the tumor and allow the blood to stream in cancer tissue.
Scientists hope to be able to modify the salmonella, so they can be used in tumor therapy. The goal is for bacteria to migrate specifically on tumors and kill you. The appeal of this form of tumor destruction is the lifestyle of Salmonella. They can live almost everywhere, including tissues that are poorly supplied with blood and therefore almost no oxygen supply. And it is precisely these areas that you can barely get through a cancerous ulcer common cancer therapies: chemotherapy can not be transported to an area where no blood flow. For its part, radiation therapy requires oxygen for the reaction in the tissue.
The phenomenon that bacteria attack the tumors is known to scientists for a long time. However, a cancer therapy with potential pathogens has been unthinkable until now. The patient’s risk of dying from infection was too high. “We have obtained a strong indication of how bacteria migrate to tumors. Now we can try to manipulate these bacteria for use in cancer therapy without causing deadly infections, “says Sara Bartels.
