Microbiome's role in attacking cancerous tumors

Researchers have discovered which gut bacteria help our immune system battle cancerous tumors and how they do it. The discovery may provide a new understanding of why immunotherapy, a treatment for cancer that helps amplify immune response, works in some cases, but not others.

 

The findings show combining immunotherapy with specific microbial therapy helps the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells in three forms of cancer.

 

The researchers identified bacterial species that were associated with colorectal cancer tumours when treated with immunotherapy. Working with germ-free mice, they then introduced these specific bacteria along with immune checkpoint blockade, a type of cancer immunotherapy. Research revealed that specific bacteria were essential to the immunotherapy working. The tumours shrank, drastically. For those subjects that did not receive the beneficial bacteria, the immunotherapy had no effect.

 

See:

 

Lukas F. Mager, Regula Burkhard, Nicola Pett, Noah C. A. Cooke, Kirsty Brown, Hena Ramay, Seungil Paik, John Stagg, Ryan A. Groves, Marco Gallo, Ian A. Lewis, Markus B. Geuking, Kathy D. McCoy. Microbiome-derived inosine modulates response to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Science, 2020; eabc3421 DOI: 10.1126/science.abc3421

Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology Resources (http://www.pharmamicroresources.com/)