Chinese scientists have developed a novel technology that could potentially restrain the growth and metastasis of a wide spectrum of solid malignant tumors, according to a new study.
This new technology, developed by a team at China’s Guangdong University of Technology, takes advantage of a specifically designed bacteria to target and rapidly replicate itself within the tumors, according to the reports.
The study was published in the journal of Cell Reports Medicine. Currently, clinical trials of the drug are underway in the United States and China’s Taiwan region.
The study noted that such bacterial drugs can not only induce strong inflammatory attacks but also deprive the tumors of the amino acid, methionine, which is essential for cancer cell growth and metastasis through a genetically engineered enzyme in the bacterial drug
The new technology is a metabolic approach that targets the strong dependency of many types of cancer cells on methionine. Thus, it is expected to have efficacy in a wide spectrum of solid human tumors, according to the research.
“In the study, the bacterial drug has been successfully tested in three divergent tumor models — triple-negative breast cancer, prostate cancer, and liver cancer. In all three cases, the drug caused the tumor to dissolve and sharply reduced cancer cell metastasis,” as per the reports.
Prof. Allan Zhao, the School of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangdong University of Technology, and a co-author of the study, said in a statement that, “The strong methionine requirement is almost a universal feature for all types of tumors, and cancer cell metastasis is the leading cause to shorten lives in cancer patients. This technology can potentially provide a new treatment modality for cancer patients and prolong their lives.”
