Scientists at Stanford Medicine found a way to fight cancer. They changed tiny organisms on the skin and then put them on mice that had cancer. Amazingly, it made their tumors shrink!
Scientists took some bacteria from mice fur and changed it so it made a special protein that would help the body fight tumors. When the modified bacteria was put on the fur, some really bad skin cancer was killed without causing inflammation or pain. The experiment was successful!
Michael Fischbach, an associate professor of bioengineering from Stanford University said it was like a magic. He treated a group of mice with aggressive tumors using a very gentle method. They just wiped their fur heads with a special type of bacteria.
Have you heard of microbiomes and the bacteria that live inside them? People usually talk about gut biomes, but don’t forget that our skin is also full of tiny critters like bacteria, fungi and viruses. We don’t always know what these creatures are doing there.
Scientists conducted a study to find out that S. epidermidis cells can make special immune cells known as CD8 T cells. These scientists cleverly used the S. epidermidis to create CD8 T cells which fight against skin cancer tumors by matching with these tumors. Once the two match, the CD8 T cells will rapidly multiply and shrink the tumor or make it disappear completely!
“We were so surprised to see the tumors disappearing – especially from places other than where we applied the bacteria,” said Fischbach. “It took a while for us to accept it was actually happening.”
Researchers at Stanford University have just discovered a new way of treating skin cancer in rats. However, we need to be cautious because this method may not work with humans as we’re very different from rats. Additionally, even if it works on skin cancer, the same treatment may not apply to other kinds of cancer inside our bodies.
The Stanford researchers say they plan to test the treatment with humans soon, but they need to perform more tests with mice and other animals first. They believe this treatment could help fight against multiple types of infectious diseases as well as cancer.
