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Medication Meddlers
07 October 2017

Medication Meddlers

Chemotherapy saves many lives, but in some patients such treatment is ineffective and the cancer continues to grow. Researchers have identified a number of cell types and factors that confer such chemotherapy resistance, but there has been a surprising recent addition to that list: bacteria. The chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, used to treat a wide variety of cancers including those of the pancreas, bladder, breast and lung, can be taken up and metabolised by certain bacteria rendering the drug inactive, studies have shown. In mice with colon cancers, for example, bacteria present in the tumours conferred resistance to gemcitabine, whereas co-treating the animals with antibiotics reinstated the drug’s cancer-killing effects. Furthermore, gemcitabine-metabolising bacteria (green) were also discovered in human pancreatic cancers (cells pictured). This suggests that combination therapies of gemcitabine and antibiotics might be an effective strategy for treating pancreatic cancer patients in whom chemotherapy isn’t working.

Written by Ruth Williams

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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