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Clostridia in cancer therapy

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 1, pages 237–242 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

During the past decade, the search for an effective system for the selective delivery of high therapeutic doses of anti-cancer agents to tumours has explored a variety of ingenious and increasingly complex biological systems. These systems are most often based on gene therapy and use viral vectors as the delivery vehicle. Invariably, such systems have been found wanting with respect to a lack of tumour specificity, poor levels of transgene expression and inefficient distribution of the vector throughout the tumour mass. By contrast, the ability of intravenously injected clostridial spores to infiltrate, then selectively germinate in, the hypoxic regions of solid tumours seems to be a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific.

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Figure 1: Clostridial-directed enzyme–prodrug therapy (CDEPT).

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Nicola Minion for typing this manuscript, Ben Minton for the initial artwork and the financial support of the European Union.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Infections, Immunity and Inflammation and the School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Floor C, West Block, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK

    Nigel P. Minton

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DATABASES

LocusLink

TNF-α

Swiss Prot

cytosine deaminase

nitroreductase

FURTHER INFORMATION

Nigel P. Minton's laboratory

European Union Clostridia Project

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Minton, N. Clostridia in cancer therapy. Nat Rev Microbiol 1, 237–242 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro777

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