From “bugs” to drugs
Wired’s running a story called “Turning Bugs into Drugs.” Unfortunately, the article’s opening two of sentences are almost completely wrong:
The dirty secret of pharmacology is that most medicines don’t work all that well. Stomach acids erode them, the liver filters them out, and the bloodstream shunts them away.
The real dirty secret here is that this is largely incorrect information. While it is true that some drugs’ efficacy is decreased as a result of metabolic processes, the actual truth is that pharmaceutical companies take these effects into consideration while designing drugs. Systemic drugs (those which enter the bloodstream and act on the body as a whole) are often inert in the molecular form that is introduced to the body via tablet, IV, etc. Then, when the body begins metabolizing the compound, the active form of the drug “falls out” so that it can go to work. In other words, it is the byproducts of the body’s metabolic processes that are actually the active forms of their respective drugs. So while the original form might “erode,” this could very well be part of the design.
Granted, not all drugs are like this, especially antibiotics, but many are. This error aside, the article has got some cool information about new drugs in the pipeline made from bacteria.
For cancer patients (these seem pretty out there):
Listeria monocytogenes causes deadly food poisoning, and the immune system responds in force at the first sign of the bacteria’s presence in the body. Stripping the bacteria of toxic genes and substituting ones that make molecules found in tumors may retrain the immune system to go after cancerous cells.
Status: Preliminary human trials later this year
Clostridium novyi is a relative of the bacteria that causes botulism. It doesn’t grow in live tissue at the edges of tumors but thrives deep in their dead interiors (where there’s no oxygen), eventually liquefying them. When the immune system cleans up the mess, it learns to kill living cancer cells.
Status: Animal studies
This cancer-fighter seems within the realm of possibility:
Salmonella typhimurium flourishes in tumors. By adding a gene that converts a relatively innocuous chemical called a prodrug into a toxin, it can be used to fight cancer. The prodrug goes to every cell in the body but only wipes out the ones inside the tumor.
Status: Preliminary human trials
A pet topic of mine since I have Crohn’s:
Lactococcus lactis is the bacteria used to ferment milk to make cheese. Tweak it to make IL-10 [Interleukin-10], and the bug passes through the stomach and makes medicine at the intestinal wall.
Status: Preliminary human trials
Modifying bacteria to make other products in the case of the Crohn’s and the last cancer treatment above has been done for years. E. coli is used to make insulin, for example, and has been made this way for a very long time. It is relatively easy to do because the bacterial genomes are much less complex than the human genome, and making modifications to it is relatively easy. I hope some of these treatments come to fruition.
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