A newly developed remedy impressed by micro organism residing inside tumors presents a unique strategy to fight most cancers by focusing on how tumor cells produce power.
Researchers on the College of Illinois Chicago have designed a brand new most cancers therapy by borrowing a technique from micro organism that dwell inside tumors. As a substitute of attacking most cancers cells immediately, the method targets how these cells generate power.
In prostate most cancers fashions, the remedy delivered its strongest outcomes when mixed with radiation, a normal therapy. Tumor progress slowed dramatically. The important thing part is a lab-made peptide referred to as aurB, derived from a bacterial protein. As soon as inside most cancers cells, aurB disrupts the mitochondria, the constructions accountable for producing power.
With out that power provide, tumor cells wrestle to outlive and multiply. The findings have been printed in Sign Transduction and Focused Remedy.
Focusing on the Cell’s Power Factories
“The mitochondria are essential for a cell to outlive; they’re the power factories,” mentioned Tohru Yamada, senior creator on the examine, affiliate professor within the departments of surgical procedure and biomedical engineering at UIC and a member of the College of Illinois Most cancers Middle. “Many most cancers cells exhibit altered mitochondrial quantity and exercise, as a result of a most cancers cell has to develop aggressively and quickly. Due to this fact, the mitochondria can be a perfect goal for most cancers remedy.”
Scientists have lengthy recognized that tumors include micro organism as a part of the tumor microenvironment. Extra lately, researchers have begun investigating these microbes as attainable sources of cancer-fighting compounds.
Earlier work from Yamada’s lab recognized a bacterial protein referred to as a cupredoxin that might suppress tumor progress. Cupredoxins are copper-containing proteins that assist transfer electrons between different proteins.
The crew developed a peptide drug from this protein and examined it extensively, together with in scientific trials involving adults and in research of mind most cancers in kids.
Nonetheless, that earlier therapy trusted a gene referred to as p53, which doesn’t operate the identical manner in all cancers. P53 usually helps suppress tumors, however it’s typically mutated, and people mutations differ. Consequently, the peptide was efficient in some circumstances however not in others.
“We needed to have an anti-cancer agent that doesn’t use the p53 operate,” Yamada mentioned.
Discovery of a New Mechanism
To handle this limitation, the researchers looked for a bacterial protein that targets mitochondria as a substitute. They recognized one other cupredoxin that works via this pathway.
Within the new examine, the crew analyzed tumor samples from breast most cancers sufferers and used DNA sequencing to identify the bacteria present. One species stood out because it contained a cupredoxin protein called auracyanin, which functions similarly to the one identified in earlier research.
Using this protein as a model, the scientists designed a new peptide called aurB. Laboratory experiments showed that aurB enters the mitochondria of tumor cells and binds to ATP synthase, a key enzyme needed to produce ATP, the cell’s main energy source.
The team tested aurB in cell lines lacking active p53 and in mouse models of prostate cancer that no longer respond to hormone therapy. When combined with radiation, a standard treatment for prostate cancer, aurB significantly reduced tumor growth without clear signs of toxicity.
“The combination significantly enhanced the activity of the peptide and the tumor became much smaller,” Yamada said. “This approach is promising. Using a well-established tibial bone metastatic model, we demonstrated significant inhibition of tumor growth, preclinically.”
Next Steps Toward Clinical Use
The researchers have secured a patent for aurB with support from UIC’s Office of Technology Management and are now exploring how to move the therapy into human clinical trials.
Yamada continues to study bacteria as a source of new drug ideas. He believes auracyanin may be just one of many bacterial proteins that could be adapted into future cancer treatments.
“There are many other bacterial proteins that could be source of cancer drugs,” Yamada said. “We simply haven’t tried them yet.”
Reference: “Suppression of mitochondrial energy production by a photosynthetic bacterial cupredoxin peptide inhibits tumor growth” by Samer A. Naffouje, Duy Binh Tran, David J. Rademacher, Valentina Botti, Konstantin Christov, Albert Green, Weiguo Li, Ngoc Hai Trieu Phong, Salvatore Cannistraro, Anna Rita Bizzarri, Tapas K. Das Gupta and Tohru Yamada, 7 April 2026, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.
DOI: 10.1038/s41392-026-02703-7
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