Development of Bacteria as Gene Delivery System
Novel viral and non-viral transport vehicles bring dawn to the development of gene therapy by increasing the efficiency of transfection. Bacteria become an attractive gene delivery vector because it can transfer therapeutic gene product into the target organism, organ or tissue directly. Creative Biolabs provides the state-of-the-art non-viral vector technology for basic research and preclinical applications.
Bacteria used for gene therapy
Bactofection is a promising technique for transfection in human gene therapy. Transformed bacteria that contain plasmids carrying the transgene are applicated into the target tissue, then vectors can release plasmids to express therapeutic transgene through undergo lysis. Bactofection can also be used for DNA vaccination against numerous microbial agents. Specific dsRNA production can be delivered into the target cells via bactofection to achieve RNA interference. We offer various attenuated bacteria strains and the use of antibiotics in bactofection to reduce the risk of clinically symptomatic infections to minimum without affecting the expression of therapeutic genes.
Fig.1 The mechanism of Bactofection
Bacterial strains
- Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a classic model used to treat diseases. E. coli can be modified to reduce virulence to improve safety. Also E. coli can be modified to penetrate through the cellular membrane better and promote releasing carried plasmid into target cell by genetic engineering.
- L. monocytogenes can also be used for bactofection in mammalian cells, but its pathological effects have to be eliminated.
- Bifidobacterium longum (B. longum), Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (S. typhimurium) and S. choleraesuis are facultative anaerobic microbes which can apply in the tissue of solid tumors for gene delivery. Here, we provide multiple methods to limit the pathogenicity that contains affecting of adenylate cyclase, adenine methylase and various receptor proteins.
Fig.2 Using bactofection in various disease models
Alternative gene therapy
Alternative gene therapy (AGT) is a therapeutic method that the gene is not transferred into the host cells but the produced protein catalyzes the conversion of an exogenously applied harmless molecule into an agent with detrimental effects on tumor tissue. S. typhimurium and C. sporogenes can be used to deliver cytosine deaminase (CD) in the therapy of colorectal cancer, spleen cancer and various lymphatic tumors. And B. longum transformed with human endostatin has been used for the treatment of liver tumors. The side effects of this kind of chemotherapy are limited by the tissue-specific growth and expression.
Features
- Amount of delivered DNA
- Easy and safe delivery
- Low production costs
- Simple production
- Target tissue specificity
With a skilled team of scientists, Creative Biolabs provides cutting-edge bactofection method and various modified bacterial strains for basic research and preclinical applications. Please feel free to contact us for more details and we are pleased to offer you the best services.
Reference
- Palffy, R.; et al. (2006). Bacteria in gene therapy: bactofection versus alternative gene therapy. Gene therapy, 13(2), 101.
