泥土细菌有助于杀灭癌
——BBC新闻网健康栏目编辑Caroline Parkinson
一种在泥土中发现的细菌正在显出希望，能开发成为一种进入肿瘤治疗癌症的药物。
梭菌孢子的孢子基因细菌能够在肿瘤中生长，因为那里没有氧气。
英国和荷兰的科学家已经能利用基因合成一种酶，使其进入细菌来激活癌症药物。
专家说这需要一些时间来确认这项微生物学会研究工作的潜在益处，
这项研究工作的情况正向约克大学学会秋季会议提交。
孢子仅能在实体瘤内生长，比如肺、脑和前列腺肿瘤里面。而不能在身体的其他有氧气存在的组织内生长。
健康组织不受影响
研究人员几十年来一直都在研究利用梭菌“带菌者”输送癌症药物的可能性。
来自诺丁汉大学和Maastricht大学的科学家们已经实现了把改良版本的酶注入梭菌孢子基因的方法。
在动物实验中，药物经血液注入，只有在这种酶的触发下药物才能激活。然后药物只针对肿瘤细胞进行破坏。
Nigel Minton教授，领导了该研究，他说：梭菌是一种古老的菌群，它在这个星球出现富氧大气层之前就进化了，所以它们能在低氧环境下茂盛生长。
当梭菌孢子注入癌症患者体内，它们只会在无氧环境下生长，也就是实体瘤的中心。
这完全是一种自然现象，不需要基础性的转换，它具有精细的特异性。
我们能开发这种特异性，用以杀灭肿瘤同时使健康组织不受影响。
这个团队现在正计划和另外一些研究人员合作开展临床试验，试验应该会在2013年开始。
Nell Barrie是英国癌症研究所的高级科学信息主管，他说：发现那些旨在癌细胞治疗同时保留健康细胞不受伤害的方法，是全世界研究人员的关键目标。
但这是一个不容易解决的问题，特别是由于每种癌症都是不同的。这种特殊方法还没有在临时试验过，所以在研究人员确认它能否达到真实疗效，还将需要一些时间。
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14761417
Soil bacterium helps kill cancersBy Caroline Parkinson
By Caroline Parkinson
Health editor, BBC News website
A bacterium found in soil is a showing promise as a way of delivering cancer drugs into tumours.
Spores of the Clostridium sporogenes bacterium can grow within tumours because there is no oxygen.
UK and Dutch scientists have been able to genetically engineer an enzyme into the bacteria to activate a cancer drug.
Experts said it would be some time before the potential benefits of the work - presented to the Society of Microbiology - were known.
The work is being presented to the society's autumn conference at the University of York.
The spores grow only within solid tumours, such as breast, brain and prostate tumours and not in other tissue in the body, where oxygen is present.
Healthy tissue 'unscathed'
Researchers have been investigating the possibilities of clostridium "vectors" to deliver cancer drugs for decades.
The scientists from the University of Nottingham and Maastricht University were able to genetically engineer an improved version of an enzyme into C.sporogenes.
In animal tests, a drug was also injected into the bloodstream which becomes active only when it is triggered by this enzyme.
It then destroys only the cells in its vicinity - the tumour cells.
Professor Nigel Minton, who led the research, said: "Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions.
"When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, ie the centre of solid tumours.
"This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific.
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