Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026

Paramyxoviruses for Tumor-targeted Immunomodulation: Design and Evaluation Ex Vivo
Published on: January 7, 2019
Stimulus-responsive engineered oncolytic bacteria
Jianjiang Chen1, Yanbin Liu2, Yumin Wu2
1State Key Laboratory of Targeting Oncology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China; National Center for International Research of Bio-targeting Theranostics, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China; Guangxi Key Laboratory of Bio-targeting Theranostics, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Targeting Tumor Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China; Guangxi Talent Highland of Major New Drugs Innovation and Development, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China; Targeting Theranostics Research Center of Guangxi Higher Education, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, 530021, China.
None:
Oncolytic bacteria have emerged as a promising platform for targeted cancer therapy owing to their intrinsic ability to preferentially colonize tumor tissues, induce direct tumor cell killing, and remodel the tumor microenvironment to activate antitumor immunity. However, native bacteria alone rarely meet the requirements of precision oncology, particularly in terms of spatial specificity, temporal control, and safety. Recent advances in synthetic biology have enabled the construction of stimulus-responsive gene circuits that confer programmable control over therapeutic gene expression in tumor-colonizing bacteria by coupling defined exogenous triggers or endogenous tumor-associated cues to tightly regulated genetic programs. These engineered systems support the tumor-specific delivery of diverse therapeutic payloads, including cytotoxic agents, cytokines, immunomodulatory ligands, prodrug-converting enzymes, metabolic modulators, and nucleic acid-based therapeutics, while minimizing off-target activity. This review thus summarizes recent developments in stimulus-responsive oncolytic bacteria, highlights key design principles and performance trade-offs, and discusses emerging strategies to advance bacteria as programmable living therapeutics for cancer treatment.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Tumor Immunotherapy
Lysogenic Cycle of Bacteriophages
Bacterial Transformation
Griffith made an unexpected discovery when he killed the pathogenic strain and mixed its remains with the live, non-pathogenic strain. Not only did the mixture kill host mice, but it also contained living pathogenic bacteria that...
DNA Bacteriophages
Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) and Cancer
RSV is a retrovirus that contains two copies of a plus-strand RNA genome. Its genome consists of four main open...
Microorganisms in Medicine and Therapeutics
