According to a press release published by Columbia University, Columbia Engineering researchers have built a novel preclinical evaluation pipeline to specialise bacterial therapies for lung cancer treatment. The new method was successful in characterising bacterial medicines and integrating them with existing lung cancer therapy.
Lung cancer is one of the deadliest and most common types of cancer. It is the main cause of death from cancer in the United States. On the other hand, therapy options are still limited due to the ineffectiveness of several currently available therapies.
Bacterial therapy has come into prominence as a brand new technique to deal with most cancers lately. However, despite the fact that this healing modality has swiftly superior from laboratory research to scientific trials withinside the preceding 5 years, The most successful treatment for some cancers may be in combination with other medications.
Minimizing any additional toxicity
The study combined bacterial drugs with other forms of therapy to boost therapeutic efficacy and reduce negative effects.
Dhruba Deb, the study’s first author and an associate research scientist who studies the impact of bacterial toxins on lung cancer in Professor Tal Danino’s lab in Biomedical Engineering, said, “We envision a fast and selective expansion of our pipeline to improve treatment efficacy and safety for solid tumours.”
“As someone who has lost loved ones to cancer, I hope to see this method progress from the bench to the bedside in the future.”
Making use of RNA sequencing
Researchers used RNA sequencing to determine how cancer cells respond to bacteria at the cellular & molecular levels. They first developed a theoretical hypothesis about which molecular pathways in cancer cells contribute to the cells’ resistance to bacterial treatment, and then, to test it, they used current cancer medications to block these pathways.
The findings eventually showed that combining the medicines with bacterial toxins is more effective at destroying lung cancer cells. In mouse models of lung cancer, for example, they validated the combination of bacterium treatment and an AKT inhibitor.
“This new study outlines an exciting direction in drug development previously unexplored in lung cancer: the use of toxins derived from bacteria,” said Upal Basu Roy, executive director of research at the LUNGevity Foundation United States of America.
“The preclinical data presented in the manuscript provide a strong rationale for further research in this area and open the possibility of new treatment options for patients diagnosed with this deadly disease.”
The scientists’ next step is to expand their study to larger-scale investigations in preclinical models of difficult-to-treat lung cancers, and to collaborate with doctors to strengthen the transition to clinical trials.
The study was published in Scientific Reports.
