Bacteria can be led directly to a tumor through the walls of blood vessels using a rotating magnetic field. According to a press release, this is the latest finding from testing in cell cultures and mice conducted by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) led by Simone Schürle, professor at the Responsive Biomedical Systems Lab. The next step is to load these bacteria with cancer drugs and directly transport them into tumors.
For this, bacteria are used that are naturally magnetic as they contain iron oxide particles. Schürle comments: “Once the bacteria have passed through the blood vessel wall and are in the tumor, they can independently migrate deep into its interior.” Her group were able to demonstrate this using fluorescent markings. They had already shown at the end of 2020 that bacteria from the Magnetospirillumgenus can be accurately guided outside of the body using magnetic fields.
Schürle adds: “We think that we can increase the efficacy of bacterial cancer therapy by using an engineering approach.” Since Magnetospirillum is one of the few magnetotactic bacterial genera, the researcher will now attempt to make the more prevalent Escherichia coli bacteria magnetic. According to ETH, one day it might be possible to control medically active bacteria that are not naturally magnetic via a magnetic field.
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