Nontoxic radioactive Listeria(at) is a highly effective therapy against metastatic pancreatic cancer.

ABSTRACT: No significant improvement in therapy of pancreatic cancer has been reported over the last 25 y, underscoring the urgent need for new alternative therapies. Here, we coupled a radioisotope, (188)Rhenium, to an attenuated (at) live Listeria monocytogenes (Listeria(at)) using Listeria-binding antibodies, thus creating a unique radioactive Listeria(at) (RL). We then demonstrated in a highly metastatic pancreatic mouse tumor model (Panc-02) that RL delivered radioactivity to the metastases and less abundantly to primary tumors in vivo, without harming normal cells. This result was possible because Listeria(at) was efficiently cleared by the immune system in normal tissues but not in the heavily immune-suppressed microenvironment of metastases and primary tumor. Multiple treatments with low dos

SUBMITTER: Quispe-Tintaya W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3666740 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature