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A genome‑wide screen in E. coli reveals metabolic adaptations that enhance intratumoral fitness and bacterial cancer therapy efficacy.
Nature Cancer · · Journal Article · Open access
Chen, Rouanne + more
Abstract ↗AI summary
The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
Deleting nonglucose phosphotransferase systems in Escherichia coli aligns metabolism with tumor metabolites and increases intratumoral fitness, improving tumor colonization and therapy efficacy.
- Why it matters: The molecular rules that let bacteria thrive in the tumor microenvironment remain unclear, limiting rational design of bacterial cancer-therapy chassis.
- What they did: A genome-wide functional screen identified genes and pathways controlling intratumoral fitness; targeted deletions of nonglucose phosphotransferase systems were then combined into a tumor-avid Escherichia coli strain (Ec-TA).
- The result: Ec-TA showed increased tumor colonization after intratumoral and intravenous delivery, displaced wild-type bacteria from pre-colonized tumors, and enhanced anti-tumor efficacy when engineered to deliver an encoded immunostimulatory payload.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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