Open AccessRemote control of tumour‐targeted Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium by the use of l ‐arabinose as inducer of bacterial gene expression in vivo
Author(s) -
Loessner Holger,
Endmann Anne,
Leschner Sara,
Westphal Kathrin,
Rohde Manfred,
Miloud Tewfik,
Hämmerling Günter,
Neuhaus Klaus,
Weiss Siegfried
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
cellular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.542
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1462-5822
pISSN - 1462-5814
DOI - 10.1111/j.1462-5822.2007.00890.x
Subject(s) - biology , bacteria , salmonella enterica , microbiology and biotechnology , salmonella , reporter gene , gene , in vivo , plasmid , bacteriophage , gene expression , enterobacteriaceae , virology , escherichia coli , genetics
Summary We have used Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ( S. typhimurium ) which are able to colonize tumours besides spleen and liver. Bacteria were equipped with constructs encoding green fluorescent protein or luciferase as reporters under control of the promoter P BAD that is inducible with l ‐arabinose. Reporter genes could be induced in culture but also when the bacteria resided within the mouse macrophages J774A.1. More important, strong expression of reporters by the bacteria could be detected in mice after administration of l ‐arabinose. This was especially pronounced in bacteria colonizing tumours. Histology demonstrated that the bacteria had accumulated in and close to necrotic areas of tumours. Bacterial gene induction was observed in both regions. P BAD is tightly controlled also in vivo because gene E of bacteriophage ΦX174 could be introduced as inducible suicide gene. The possibility to deliberately induce genes in bacterial carriers within the host should render them extremely powerful tools for tumour therapy.