With the help of cells instead of tablets, many diseases could be recognized, prevented and cured: the future of medical therapy.
With the help of cells instead of tablets, many diseases could be recognized, prevented and cured: the future of medical therapy.
leveraging competent bacteria
A new study published in Science today describes how scientists have genetically changed bacteria to successfully recognize cancer cells. This breakthrough could help improve the diagnosis of cancer and to enable targeted biological therapies in the future.
The project started with a lecture by the synthetic biologist Rob Cooper during a weekly laboratory meeting at the University of California in San Diego. Cooper dealt with the examination of genes and the gene transfer in bacteria.
genes are the basic units of genetic inheritance. Among other things, they determine the characteristics that we inherit from our parents. During the gene transfer, genes are transferred from one cell to another. This can be vertically if a cell shares itself and replicates its DNA, or horizontally when DNA is exchanged between non -related cells.
The horizontal gentlean transfer is widespread in the microbial world. Certain bacteria can absorb genes from the free DNA from their immediate vicinity. This happens when cells die and their DNA is released. Bacteria can include these free DNA in their own cells and use them to adapt evolutionarily.
This process enables bacteria to explore their surroundings and record genes that could offer them an advantage. The idea behind the genetic change of bacteria for cancer detection is based on the fact that cancer is defined by changes in the genetic material of the cells.
The researchers opted for the bacterium acinetobacter baylyi as a test bios sensor for recognizing diseases. The genome of A. Baylyi was modified in such a way that it contained long DNA sequences that resembled those of the human cancer that they wanted to grasp. These "complementary" DNA sequences acted as adhesive areas on which the specific tumoromousoma DNA could be integrated into the genome of bacteria.
An important goal was to keep the bacterium tumoromous in the bacterium to activate other genes. In this case, it was an antibiotic resistance gene that was used as a signal for the detection of cancer. If the bacteria were able to grow on antibiotic culture plates, their antibiotic resistance gene was active and this indicated that cancer detection.
The team carried out a number of experiments in which the new bacterial biosensor and tumor cells were brought into increasingly complex systems. First, the bacteria were treated with cleaned tumoroma-DNA and the biosensor recognized the tumoromousoma DNA successfully.
Then the bacteria were bred together with living tumor cells and here too the tumoroma dna could be recognized. Finally, the bacteria were injected into living mice that either had tumors or not. In a mouse model for colon cancer, the biosensors were reliably distinguished between mice with and without colon cancer.
According to these promising results, the bacteria bios sensor has been further improved and can now distinguish individual base pair changes within the Tumorgomom DNA. This technology called Catch (Cellular Assay for Targeted, Crispr-Discriminated Horizontal Gene Transfer) has great potential and could be used in the future to recognize a variety of diseases, especially infections and cancer.
However, the technology is not yet ready for use in the clinic. The researchers are actively working on the further development in order to improve the efficiency of DNA detection and to critically assess the performance of the biosensor compared to other diagnostic tests. In addition, the safety of patients and the environment must be guaranteed.
The most exciting perspective of cellular medicine is not just the detection of diseases. Bio -sensors could be programmed in such a way that they can trigger specific biological therapy when the sequence of DNA is recognized, directly at the point where the disease is recognized in real time.
The development of this innovative technology is the result of successful cooperation between different scientists and researchers. The team included Professor Jeff Hasty, Dr. Rob Cooper, Associate Professor Susan Woods and Dr. Josephine Wright.
The results of this study are promising, but further tests are necessary to validate the performance of the biosensor and to research its possible application in clinical practice. However, the future of cellular medicine looks promising and could lead to revolutionary changes in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
This article was republished under a Creative Commons license from the conversation.