Scientists Genetically Engineer Bacteria To Detect Cancer Cells (reuters.com) 20
An international team of scientists has developed a new technology that can help detect (or even treat) cancer in hard-to-reach places, such as the colon. The team has published a paper in Science for the technique dubbed CATCH, or cellular assay for targeted, CRISPR-discriminated horizontal gene transfer. Engadget reports: For their lab experiments, the scientists used a species of bacterium called Acinetobacter baylyi. This bacterium has the ability to naturally take up free-floating DNA from its surroundings and then integrate it into its own genome, allowing it to produce new protein for growth. What the scientists did was engineer A. baylyi bacteria so that they'd contain long sequences of DNA mirroring the DNA found in human cancer cells. These sequences serve as some sort of one-half of a zipper that locks on to captured cancer DNA. For their tests, the scientists focus on the mutated KRAS gene that's commonly found in colorectal tumors. If an A. baylyi bacterium finds a mutated DNA and integrates it into its genome, a linked antibiotic resistance gene also gets activated. That's what the team used to confirm the presence of cancer cells: After all, only bacteria with active antibiotic resistance could grow on culture plates filled with antibiotics.
While the scientists were successfully able to detect tumor DNA in mice injected with colorectal cancer cells in the lab, the technology is still not ready to be used for actual diagnosis. The team said it's still working on the next steps, including improving the technique's efficiency and evaluating how it performs compared to other diagnostic tests. In the future, the technology could also be used for targeted biological therapy that can deploy treatment to specific parts of the body based on the presence of certain DNA sequences.
While the scientists were successfully able to detect tumor DNA in mice injected with colorectal cancer cells in the lab, the technology is still not ready to be used for actual diagnosis. The team said it's still working on the next steps, including improving the technique's efficiency and evaluating how it performs compared to other diagnostic tests. In the future, the technology could also be used for targeted biological therapy that can deploy treatment to specific parts of the body based on the presence of certain DNA sequences.
You want to inject me with that???? (Score:3)
So this diagnostic tool contains cancer cell DNA and an antibiotic resistance gene. What could possibly go wrong?
Re:You want to inject me with that???? (Score:5, Informative)
Lots. That's why it is still in the research stage and why they are seeing how it works in mice. Funny as it sounds, new cancer treatments do not spring up like flowers after a rain. It takes years of small advances. This is one of those.
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Have you seen how cancer kills people?
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I know it's complicated and you have to have some understanding of biology but the basic process is that this bacteria takes up cancer DNA from the colon and then creates an antibody (protein) which kills the cancer.
No, the bacteria doesn't spread cancer. It takes up cancer DNA and then makes an antibody that kills cancer.
(The antibiotic resistance gene is there to help them sort out which cells have successfully picked up the cancer DNA.)
Stage one of a larger project. (Score:2)
This seems like it could be the first stage of a larger weapon against cancer. Identifying what to kill is the largest problem when fighting cancer. This seems to be the first step of being able to identify cancer on a microscopic level by horizontal gene transfer. The proof of concept merely activated a gene to make it identifiable but the real thing should effectively self-destruct and release something to induce cell death for all nearby cells.
Impressive work.
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First stage of a new cash cow for the pharma industry most likely. Maybe one day we'll start thinking about preventing the thing in the first place.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazet... [harvard.edu]
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Ya, why don't you tell them how to do that? You have a degree in biochemistry, yes?
The end for a respected medical specialization? (Score:2)
Let's take this opportunity to applaud a medical specialty that this bacterium may render as obsolete as buggy whip manufacturers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gABYTmXos&pp=ygUhQm93c2VyIGFuZCBCbHVlIENvbG9yZWNhbCBzdXJnZW9u [youtube.com]
Hard to reach places like the colon? (Score:2)
One of my two favorite slashdot topics (Score:2)
About once a month, you'll see an article stating, a) there's new evidence that their might have been life on Mars, or b) there's a promising new treatment for cancer.
This has been going on for about 30 years. Yet we still have cancer and we still don't know if there's ever been life on Mars.
There's only so many times you can cry wolf.....
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We know that Mars had water so that's a good start. The odds that _something_ grew there are well above zero.
Cancer.... Not anytime soon but with crispr and mRNA and such we might actually see cancer cures finally. I was looking this morning at related stuff and saw papers on good work being done on cancer, hsv-2, and several more obscure plagues from the mRNA crowd. Apparently one team has an hsv-2 vaccine that's works in dish and in mice, currently testing on 106 humans with data expected by end of 23.
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This has been going on for about 30 years. Yet we still have cancer
Which cancer [cancer.gov]?
This is like the goat paste warriors whining that cancer kills more people than covid without specifying which cancer. For those who know the name [bbc.com], Andy Taylor has stage four prostate cancer. The treatment he is undergoing, "a nuclear medicine, Lutetium-177, which is targeted so it only sees cancer cells", has extended his life by five years. Depending on how things go, it may go even further.
Yes, yes, his cancer isn't cured,
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Only their cells can grow on plate? No..... (Score:2)
There are countless examples showing how bacteria mutate to gain antibiotic resistance all on their own, they don't need this genetically modified enhancement to gain that function.
The typical Petri dish experiment runs over a few days. Dish is full of bacteria on a feeding material it likes, then antibiotics are added at one edge. Initially the colony gets pushed back but the few survivors continue growing and recolonize the entire dish. Noe you have a "naturally" occurring Petri dish of anti biotic res
Umm... I Am Legend? (Score:2)
Reach (Score:2)
An international team of scientists has developed a new technology that can help detect (or even treat) cancer in hard-to-reach places, such as the colon.
That's not hard to reach!
Not really believable anymore (Score:3)
Doctor? (Score:2)
Bacteria doing the job of doctors & lab tests for detecting cancer...and probably at a cheeper price too!
So your next oncologist will be an oozing splatter of bacteria in a petri dish?