肿瘤靶向细菌Escherichia coli Nissle1917在癌症治疗中的研究进展

传统化疗、放疗等癌症治疗手段存在靶向性差、毒副作用大等问题。肿瘤靶向细菌可以特异性定殖于实体肿瘤微环境,通过基因工程改造可以使其在实体肿瘤内持续合成并释放抗癌药物,提高药物对肿瘤组织的选择性,避免化疗药物对正常组织的伤害,成为近年来癌症靶向治疗的研究热点。Escherichia coli Nissle 1917(EcN)作为一种被广泛研究和应用的益生菌,没有致病性,不产生免疫毒副作用,且具有高效的肿瘤靶向定殖能力,能在正常组织中迅速被清除,因此在癌症细菌疗法中备受关注。针对EcN在癌症靶向治疗研究方面的最新进展进行综述,介绍了通过基因工程提高其靶向性、可控性和安全性的方法,并介绍了EcN在辅助其他癌症治疗方面的应用。随着基因工程和合成生物学技术的进步,人们对细菌功能的设计合成能力不断增强,EcN作为可编程的活体药物,有希望发展成为对抗癌症的有力武器。     

细菌介导的肿瘤治疗研究进展

癌症是导致人类死亡的主要原因之一。尽管现代医学在癌症治疗方面取得了重大进展,但由于癌症的异质性、耐药性和治疗副作用等问题,传统治疗手段仍存在局限性。随着科学技术的不断发展,细菌治疗在肿瘤治疗领域展现出巨大潜力。细菌因其生存特性具有天然的肿瘤靶向能力,并含有大量免疫激活物质,可调节肿瘤微环境并激活免疫系统以达到杀伤肿瘤的目的。部分细菌还能通过多种途径直接杀伤肿瘤细胞并抑制肿瘤血管生成。此外,科学家们在深入探索过程中发现,细菌联合放疗、化疗和免疫治疗等方法逐渐成为细菌治疗的主流策略。并可根据临床需求,将外源性基因导入细菌以发挥特定功能。细菌疗法通过与多种治疗方式联用来克服各自的治疗缺陷,提高肿瘤的治疗效果并降低其毒性副作用。从细菌治疗的基本原理、常用于肿瘤治疗的细菌种类、细菌治疗的优化策略及临床试验和案例等方面进行综述。希望通过充分发挥细菌的治疗潜力,为癌症患者提供更加有效的治疗手段。     

沙门氏菌抗肿瘤疗法在合成生物学时代的发展和机遇

在世界各国，癌症是导致死亡的主要原因之一，也是提高人类预期寿命的重要障碍。目前临床上主流的分子靶向疗法和免疫疗法还不能完全治愈肿瘤且常常副作用巨大，其中原因较为复杂。而以沙门氏菌抗肿瘤疗法为代表的细菌抗肿瘤疗法具有潜力弥补分子靶向疗法和免疫疗法在肿瘤靶向性上的不足。本文将从目前癌症治疗的困境出发，回顾细菌抗肿瘤疗法的历史，阐述基因工程与合成生物学时代沙门氏菌抗肿瘤疗法的进展，论述其作为下一代抗肿瘤微型机器人的潜力。最终，我们希望在靶向肿瘤治疗领域激发思想火花，克服沙门氏菌抗肿瘤疗法的局限性，推进其临床应用。     

细菌小细胞在癌症治疗中的应用

癌症一直是危害人类健康的主要疾病之一。传统的癌症治疗方法包括放疗、化疗和手术,均具有明显的毒副作用或局限性。脂质体和纳米颗粒作为被广泛研究的药物递送载体,在人体临床试验中也出现了药物渗漏和装载功能不全等问题。目前而言,应用具有肿瘤靶向性的载体递送抗肿瘤药物或小分子,是有希望介导安全、有效的肿瘤治疗的策略之一。近年来,细菌来源的非复制型小细胞已受到越来越多的关注。小细胞是细菌异常分裂时期产生的纳米级无核细胞,其直径为200–400 nm,因而具有较大的药物装载能力。对小细胞的表面进行修饰,例如,装配能与肿瘤细胞表面特异性抗原或受体结合的抗体/配体,可显著提高小细胞的肿瘤靶向性。这种具有靶向性的纳米材料能将抗肿瘤的化疗药物、功能性核酸或编码功能性小分子的质粒靶向递送至肿瘤,而减少药物在正常组织器官的集聚。因此,使用小细胞作为靶向递送载体有助于降低药物对机体的毒性,从而最大限度地发挥药物分子在体内的抗肿瘤活性。文中将对小细胞的产生与纯化、药物装载、肿瘤细胞靶向性、内化过程以及其用于递送抗肿瘤药物的研究进展等方面进行综述,为开发基于小细胞的癌症治疗策略提供一定的参考。     

叶酸修饰的磁性纳米材料在肿瘤诊断和治疗中的应用进展

癌症是威胁人类健康的主要疾病之一,由于检测方法和治疗手段的局限,其成为全球主要的公共卫生难题。叶酸修饰的磁性纳米材料由于同时具有肿瘤细胞靶向性和磁性,不仅可以用于肿瘤组织的成像和肿瘤细胞的检测,还可以用于肿瘤患者的磁热疗、药物载体和基因载体,为肿瘤的靶向诊治提供技术手段。本文综述了叶酸修饰的磁性纳米材料在肿瘤诊断和治疗中的研究进展。     

细菌驱动的免疫调控与肿瘤精准治疗

精准的靶向性和高的治疗效率是癌症个性化治疗的主要要求。细菌的一个优势在于它们能够靶向肿瘤并优先定植在肿瘤的核心区域。由于细菌具有丰富的病原体相关分子模式,即使在肿瘤免疫抑制微环境中也能有效激活免疫细胞,因此能够增强对肿瘤细胞的特异性免疫识别和消除。更吸引人的是,随着生物工程技术和纳米技术的飞速发展,工程改造细菌可以实现定向遗传重编程、选择性功能重组和精确时空控制,催生了许多创造性的肿瘤精准治疗策略。本文综述了近年来基于细菌驱动在肿瘤免疫调控和精准治疗中的应用及其优点,以期为新型智能给药系统的设计提供参考;还讨论了利用细菌治疗肿瘤目前面临的挑战和未来的前景。     

细菌与免疫疗法联用的抗肿瘤策略

利用细菌作为一种癌症治疗手段已有较长的历史。随着对肿瘤微环境和免疫机制等相关问题的不断探究,细菌疗法已逐渐发展成为一种平台技术,为肿瘤的免疫治疗开辟了新策略、新潜能。某些细菌依靠其自身特性,能够特异性靶向肿瘤组织,不仅对肿瘤生长产生直接抑制作用,还能刺激机体产生固有和适应性免疫应答,从而显著提升抗肿瘤治疗的疗效,甚至有助于解决转移性肿瘤等难题。通过基因工程技术,从基因水平上调控细菌的分子机制来定制其生物功能,高效递送各种免疫治疗剂至肿瘤病灶处而发挥作用,达到精确调控、有效激活的目的,这是其他药物传递系统所无法比拟的。此外,肿瘤靶向型细菌介导的治疗方案既可作为单一疗法应用,也可与其他治疗方式如化疗、放疗和光热治疗等联合,以获得更佳的临床治疗结果。因此,该文主要讨论了活细菌发挥肿瘤靶向性和抗肿瘤免疫作用的关键,总结了生物工程菌用于免疫治疗的相关研究及其与其他治疗方式联合应用的优势,为细菌疗法的进一步研究与发展提供依据。     

活菌作为智能递送载体用于肿瘤治疗的研究进展

细菌经常被用作药物的载体实现被装载药物的肿瘤靶向、深部组织渗透等。近年来，通过合成生物学技术对细菌的基因进行改造，赋予了细菌环境感知和响应的功能，实现了细菌负荷药物的时空调控，促进细菌作为递送载体向更加智能化的方向发展。为此，本文综述了近年来利用细菌作为药物载体，以及基于环境感知和响应控制药物释放的细菌智能递送载体应用于癌症治疗的研究进展，最后对未来智能化的细菌载体应用于癌症治疗进行展望。     

靶向p53信号通路在癌症治疗中的作用

作为一种肿瘤抑制因子,p53可协调多种反应,包括细胞周期阻滞、DNA修复、抗氧化作用、抗血管生成作用、自噬、衰老和凋亡等。p53主要通过调节其靶基因的转录发挥其肿瘤抑制功能,但p53是癌症中最常见的突变基因之一,当p53发生突变时,就会导致其功能丧失进而导致肿瘤细胞生长。p53已成为癌症治疗中最重要和最有吸引力的药物靶点之一,因此以p53为靶点产生了许多癌症治疗方式。本文回顾了靶向p53信号通路在基因治疗、靶向治疗以及免疫治疗中的研究,以期为了解靶向p53的研究提供新思路。     

细菌在实体肿瘤治疗中的应用

150多年前就发现某些细菌能够选择性地在实体肿瘤部位生长聚集,而在正常组织器官则否。尽管对产生这一现象的原因尚不明了,但人们已经利用细菌的这一特性,就试图将其作为治疗实体肿瘤的一种非常有前景的方法进行了研究。随着基因工程技术的日益完善,以及新的具有肿瘤靶向性细菌的发现,细菌作为肿瘤靶向性载体用于治疗肿瘤已日益受到青睐。这些细菌被用来传递抗肿瘤生长或杀伤肿瘤的物质,如毒素、前药转化酶、血管生长抑制剂、细胞因子等。     

益生菌Escherichia coli Nissle1917功能研究进展

大肠埃希菌Nissle1917,简称EcN,是益生菌中为数不多的革兰氏阴性菌,在临床上主要用于克罗恩病、溃疡性结肠炎等胃肠功能障碍。其机制在于EcN能在人体肠道定殖,并阻止病原菌对肠道黏膜的侵袭,对肠道黏膜屏障具有保护和修护作用。EcN还参与机体的免疫调控,平衡免疫因子的分泌,增强宿主免疫能力,进而缓解和治疗炎症。最进研究发现,EcN具有肿瘤靶向作用,是良好的药物载体,且与化疗药物联用可增强药物抗肿瘤的疗效,为抗肿瘤治疗提供了新的思路。     

Bioengineered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 for tumour-targeting therapy

Bacterial vectors, as microscopic living ‘robotic factories’, can be reprogrammed into microscopic living ‘robotic factories’, using a top-down bioengineering approach to produce and deliver anticancer agents. Most of the current research has focused on bacterial species such as Salmonella typhimurium or Clostridium novyi. However, Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is another promising candidate with probiotic properties. EcN offers increased applicability for cancer treatment with the development of new molecular biology and complete genome sequencing techniques. In this review, we discuss the genetics and physical properties of EcN. We also summarize and analyse recent studies regarding tumour therapy mediated by EcN. Many challenges remain in the development of more promising strategies for combatting cancer with EcN.     

Quality control of biotechnology-derived vaccines: technical and regulatory considerations

Vaccines for human use have been produced for decades using classical manufacturing methods including culture of viruses and bacteria followed by various concentration-, inactivation-, detoxification-, conjugation production processes. Availability of techniques for molecular biology and for the complete chemical synthesis of genes provides prospects of genetic engineering of microorganisms so as to generate novel biotechnological/biological-derived vaccines. The potential large-scale availability of biotechnology-derived vaccines makes feasible their evaluation in the prevention and/or treatment of various infectious, chronic, degenerative and cancer human diseases. There are potential safety concerns that arise from the novel manufacturing processes and from the complex structural and biological characteristics of the products. These products have distinguishing characteristics to which consideration should be given in a well-defined quality control testing programme. The evaluation of their quality, safety, efficacy and stability necessitate complex analytical methods and appropriate physicochemical, biochemical and immunochemical methods for the analysis of the molecular entity. A flexible approach to the control of these novel products is being developed by regulatory authorities so that recommendations can be modified in the light of experience of research and development in vaccinology, production and use of biotechnology products and with the further development of new technologies.     

活体生物药的应用及在遗传性代谢缺陷病治疗中的展望

活体生物药(live biotherapeutic products,LBPs)是指来自于人体肠道内或自然界中能够治疗人类疾病的活性菌。但天然筛选的活菌存在治疗效果不明显、差异性较大等缺点,难以满足个性化诊疗的需要。近年来,随着合成生物学的发展,研究者利用生命科学及工程科学手段,设计并构建了若干可响应外界复杂环境信号的工程菌株,加快了活体生物药的研发和应用过程。遗传性代谢缺陷病(inherited metabolic disease)是因体内某些酶的遗传缺陷致使体内相应的代谢物不能正常代谢而引发一系列临床症状的一类疾病,因此利用合成生物学技术,针对特定缺陷的酶设计重组活体生物药,未来有希望用于遗传性代谢缺陷病的治疗。本综述以活体生物药为切入点,并结合国内外文献综述,来探讨活体生物药在疾病治疗中的应用,以及对遗传性代谢缺陷病治疗的潜力。     

Biochemical determination of natural tumor-associated T-cell epitopes

The knowledge of tumor-associated T-cell epitopes is important for the understanding of tumor biology and the development of cancer vaccines. We describe here a biochemical approach for the identification of tumor-associated T-cell epitopes. Peptides are extracted from immunoaffinity isolated MHC class I molecules of tumor cells and separated by HPLC. The HPLC fractions are then tested for biological activity of the peptides which are then sequenced by mass spectrometry. The tumor association of the identified T-cell epitopes is confirmed using synthetic analogs and T-cells of cancer patients.     

Efficient markerless integration of genes in the chromosome of probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 by bacterial conjugation

The probiotic strain Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is a common bacterial chassis in synthetic biology developments for therapeutic applications given its long track record of safe administration in humans. Chromosomal integration of the genes of interest (GOIs) in the engineered bacterium offers significant advantages in genetic stability and to control gene dose, but common methodologies relying on the transformation of EcN are inefficient. In this work, we implement in EcN the use of bacterial conjugation in combination with markerless genome engineering to efficiently insert multiple GOIs at different loci of EcN chromosome, leaving no antibiotic resistance genes, vector sequences or scars in the modified bacterium. The resolution of cointegrants that leads to markerless insertion of the GOIs requires expression of I-SceI endonuclease and its efficiency is enhanced by λ Red proteins. We show the potential of this strategy by integrating different genes encoding fluorescent and bioluminescent reporters (i.e. GFP, mKate2, luxCDABE) both individually and sequentially. We also demonstrate its application for gene deletions in EcN (ΔflhDC) and to replace the endogenous regulation of chromosomal locus (i.e. flhDC) by heterologous regulatory elements (e.g. tetR-Ptet) in order to have an ectopic control of gene expression in EcN with an external inducer to alter bacterial behaviour (e.g. flagellar motility). Whole-genome sequencing confirmed the introduction of the designed modifications without off-target alterations in the genome. This straightforward approach accelerates the generation of multiple modifications in EcN chromosome for the generation of living bacterial therapeutics.     

Mechanistic Insight into the TH1-Biased Immune Response to Recombinant Subunit Vaccines Delivered by Probiotic Bacteria-Derived Outer Membrane Vesicles

Recombinant subunit vaccine engineering increasingly focuses on the development of more effective delivery platforms. However, current recombinant vaccines fail to sufficiently stimulate protective adaptive immunity against a wide range of pathogens while remaining a cost effective solution to global health challenges. Taking an unorthodox approach to this fundamental immunological challenge, we isolated the TLR-targeting capability of the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 bacteria (EcN) by engineering bionanoparticlate antigen carriers derived from EcN outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Exogenous model antigens expressed by these modified bacteria as protein fusions with the bacterial enterotoxin ClyA resulted in their display on the surface of the carrier OMVs. Vaccination with the engineered EcN OMVs in a BALB/c mouse model, and subsequent mechanism of action analysis, established the EcN OMV’s ability to induce self-adjuvanted robust and protective humoral and T_H1-biased cellular immunity to model antigens. This finding appears to be strain-dependent, as OMV antigen carriers similarly engineered from a standard K12 E. coli strain derivative failed to generate a comparably robust antigen-specific T_H1 bias. The results demonstrate that unlike traditional subunit vaccines, these biomolecularly engineered “pathogen-like particles” derived from traditionally overlooked, naturally potent immunomodulators have the potential to effectively couple recombinant antigens with meaningful immunity in a broadly applicable fashion.     

Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 for probiotic use in piglets: evidence for intestinal colonization

Aims:  This study was prompted to investigate the intestinal localization and colonization of orally administered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) in piglets.
Methods and Results:  EcN was fed to ten EcN-negative piglets (3 months) over seven consecutive days. Faecal samples were collected repeatedly and tested for EcN-DNA by a combined culture/PCR assay and for viable EcN by culture methods, respectively. EcN-DNA was detectable in faeces of all piglets within the first 24 h after it was added to the feed. After the administration of EcN had been stopped, the presence of EcN-DNA in faecal samples indicated that all piglets shedded EcN with their faeces intermittently through up to 33 days. In addition, E. coli strains indistinguishable from EcN by all markers tested (rdar colony morphotype, multiplex PCR and GEI II-PCR analyses, Xba I-pattern, K5 phage susceptibility) were isolated from faecal samples and from mucosal swabs taken at euthanasia at the end of the experiment.
Conclusions:  EcN colonizes the intestine and persists in conventionally reared piglets for at least 4 weeks upon oral administration.
Significance and Impact of the Study:  Results of this study have implications for efficacy and safety assessments of EcN as a probiotic strain for use in pigs.     

Oncolytic enteroviruses

The growing body of knowledge concerning the molecular biology of viruses and virus-cell interactions provides possibilities to use viruses as a tool in an effort to treat malignant tumors. As a rule, tumor cells are highly sensitive to viruses, which can be used in cancer therapy. At the same time, the application of viral oncolysis in cancer treatment requires that the highest possible safety be ensured for both the patient and environment. Human enteroviruses are a convenient source for obtaining oncolytic virus strains, since many of them are nonpathogenic for humans or cause mild disease. The current progress in genetic engineering enables the development of attenuated enterovirus variants characterized with high safety and selectivity. This review focuses on the main members of the Enterovirus genus, such as ECHO, coxsackievirus, and vaccine strains of poliovirus as a promising source for the development of oncolytic agents applicable for cancer therapy. We have summarized the data concerning recently developed and tested oncolytic variants of enteroviruses and discusses the perspectives of their application in cancer therapy, as well as problems associated with their improvement and practical use.     

改造肠道微生物在疾病诊断与治疗中的应用

肠道微生物是近年来新兴的热门研究领域,它与人类疾病健康存在着密切的关系。伴随高通量测序技术的发展,研究者们发现了肠道微生物在疾病的诊断与治疗中的潜力。合成生物学通过设计编辑工具以及反馈回路,可以构建具有诊断疾病或者靶向治疗疾病的肠道微生物工程菌株。这些工程菌能够对环境进行感知、计算和反馈。本文概述了改造后的肠道微生物在疾病诊断与治疗中的应用,同时阐述了目前改造后肠道微生物的临床应用现状,并对"工具短缺"以及目前改造后肠道微生物所存在的安全性等问题进行了讨论。