E.coli programmed to colonize tumors in mice and deliver immunotherapy

A group of researchers from Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC, NY, USA) have engineered a strain of non-pathogenic bacteria that can colonize solid tumors in mice and safely deliver potent immunotherapies. The findings were recently published in Nature Medicine.In this study, the team generated a non-pathogenic Escherichia coli strain to specifically lyse within the tumor and release an encoded nanobody antagonist of the anti-phagocytic receptor CD47, which is commonly overexpressed in several human cancers. Administering the therapy led to not only to complete tumor regression in a mouse model of lymphoma, but also significant control of...