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Review
. 2021 Nov 30;22(23):12980.
doi: 10.3390/ijms222312980.

Fighting Cancer with Bacteria and Their Toxins

Dragan Trivanović  1   2 , Krešimir Pavelić  2 , Željka Peršurić  3
Affiliations
Review

Fighting Cancer with Bacteria and Their Toxins

Dragan Trivanović et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most important global health problems that continues to demand new treatment strategies. Many bacteria that cause persistent infections play a role in carcinogenesis. However, since bacteria are well studied in terms of molecular mechanisms, they have been proposed as an interesting solution to treat cancer. In this review, we present the use of bacteria, and particularly bacterial toxins, in cancer therapy, highlighting the advantages and limitations of bacterial toxins. Proteomics, as one of the omics disciplines, is essential for the study of bacterial toxins. Advances in proteomics have contributed to better characterization of bacterial toxins, but also to the development of anticancer drugs based on bacterial toxins. In addition, we highlight the current state of knowledge in the rapidly developing field of bacterial extracellular vesicles, with a focus on their recent application as immunotherapeutic agents.

Keywords: bacteria; bacterial toxins; extracellular vesicles; lung cancer; proteomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Different strategies in bacteria-based cancer therapy together with mechanisms by which bacteria and bacterial toxins target and suppress tumors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The use of OMVs in cancer therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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