Bacteria and Archaea: A new era of cancer therapy

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most important mortality in the world. The major drawbacks of chemotherapy are the poor absorption of drugs into tumor tissues and development of resistance against anti-cancer agents. To overcome these limitations, the use of microorganisms has been extensively considered in the treatment of cancer. Microorganisms (bacteria/Archaea) secrete different bioactive compounds that can efficiently inhibit cancer cells growth. Biological nanocarriers derived from microorganisms including outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), bacterial ghosts (BGs) and archaeosomes have also been considered as drug delivery systems. Conjugation of drug loaded nanocarriers to bacteria strongly kills the cancer cells after internalization through the bacteria. Merging of microbiology and nanotechnology may provide versatile microbial nano-hybrids for promising treatment of cancer. This strategy causes more amount of drug to enter into cancer cells. In this review, we present evidence that microorganism, their derivatives as well as their intervention with nanotechnology can be a powerful vehicle for eradication cancer.

Keywords: Archaea; Bacteria; Cancer treatment; Nanocarrier; Nanomedicine.