Learning from Clostridium novyi-NT: How to defeat cancer
Li Wang1, Qing Wang2, Xiaochao Tian3, Xinli Shi4
1 Hebei Key Laboratory of Integrative Medicine on Liver-Kidney Patterns, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang; Research Center of Combine Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Affiliated Traditional Medicine Hospital, Sichuan Medical University, Luzhou, China 2 Department of Medical Affair, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China 3 Department of Cardiology, Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China 4 Hebei Key Laboratory of Integrative Medicine on Liver-Kidney Patterns, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, China
Correspondence Address:
Prof. Xinli Shi Department of Immunology and Pathobiology, Hebei Key Laboratory of Integrative Medicine on Liver-Kidney Patterns, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050200 China
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0973-1482.204841
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Side effects associated with conventional anticancer therapies have prompted the new idea of solid tumor treatment strategy. One of them is using bacteria explored as potential antitumor agents over more than one century. Notably, the ideal therapy is a specifical target to tumors with limited toxicity. Here, we take “Clostridium novyi” for the search keyword in the PubMed from 2000 to 2015 and describe that C. novyi-NT spores act as “Trojan horse” for bacteriolytic therapy. This therapy is based on the fact that the live and attenuated obligate anaerobic bacteria are capable of binary fission selectively in anoxic areas of solid tumors and direct tumoricidal effects. Our succinct review mainly concentrates on the potential mechanisms of combination bacteriolytic therapy, an effective and safe tumor therapy with the help of C. novyi-NT. Importantly, C. novyi-NT spores were shown to induce solid tumor regression and exhibit the property to initiate an immune response. Therefore, C. novyi-NT spores should be an effective and safe tumor therapy.
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