OUR PROKARYOTIC FRIENDS

LINDA, ENJOYING THE WEATHER AT THE TOP OF EUROPE

Not all bacteria are bad – in fact, many of them are among our very best friends.  For instance, we couldn’t properly digest our food without certain gut bacteria, including the much-maligned E-coli.  It turns out that certain other bacteria – including our old enemy Salmonella – may offer a cure for cancer.  The way this works is laid out in this interesting little article:

http://www.newsweek.com/programming-bacteria-kill-cancer-cells-355474

There are other useful bacteria as well, and some of these may be useful in “hacking” the immune system in such a way as to alert it to the danger of cancer cells.  How they do this is beyond my ken, but apparently it’s possible.

However, another twist seems to be to modify the bacteria itself in such a way as to make it toxic to cancer cells but friendly to the rest of the organism.  Apparently this is in the experimental/developmental stage – meaning that many mice are dying for a good cause.  As a relative once commented: Bless the little mouse that gives its life for ours.

One thing I learned from this article that you would have thought I had already figured out: immunotherapy, triggering as it does the natural immune system, leaves behind it a record of whatever bad guy it met and conquered.  Thus, if the f…ing cancer tries to return, it is toast!