Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Bacterial Peptide and Bacteriocins in Treating Gynecological Cancers

  • Published:
International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

After breast cancer, gynecological cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in female population. The most frequently diagnosed types of gynecological cancers are cervical and ovarian cancer. Since the conventional treatments of cancer were unsuccessful in complete treatment of malignancy and they faced limitations, there is a need for the development of new treatments. Among the new treatments, bacteriotherapy has attracted much attention due to its promising results. Bacteriotherapy means using bacteria strains or their different products in the treatment of cancer. The key advantage of bacteriotherapy in comparison to conventional therapy is the specific toxicity toward tumor cells. Moreover, living, attenuated, or genetically modified strains of bacteria are able to selectively target and internalize into the tumor cells, colonize and service within the hypoxic condition of the tumor, and finally lead to tumor suppression. The present study aimed to overview the current knowledge of using bacteria and their substances (including peptides, bacteriocins, spores, and toxins) in the treatment of different types of gynecological cancers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abdi-Ali A, Worobec E, Deezagi A, Malekzadeh F (2004) Cytotoxic effects of pyocin S2 produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa on the growth of three human cell lines. Can J Microbiol 50(5):375–381

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Abraham SA, Waterhouse DN, Mayer LD, Cullis PR, Madden TD, Bally MB (2005) The liposomal formulation of doxorubicin. Methods Enzymol 391:71–97

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Al-Zeer MA, Xavier A, Lubad MA, Sigulla J, Kessler M, Hurwitz R, Meyer TF (2017) Chlamydia trachomatis prevents apoptosis via activation of PDPK1-MYC and enhanced mitochondrial binding of hexokinase II. EBioMedicine 23:100–110

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Appelberg R (2007) Neutrophils and intracellular pathogens: beyond phagocytosis and killing. Trends Microbiol 15(2):87–92

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Audirac-Chalifour A, Torres-Poveda K, Bahena-Roman M, Tellez-Sosa J, Martinez-Barnetche J, Cortina-Ceballos B, Lopez-Estrada G, Delgado-Romero K, Burguete-Garcia AI, Cantu D (2016) Cervical microbiome and cytokine profile at various stages of cervical cancer: a pilot study. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153274

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Avramis VI, Sencer S, Periclou AP, Sather H, Bostrom BC, Cohen LJ, Ettinger AG, Ettinger LJ, Franklin J, Gaynon PS (2002) A randomized comparison of native Escherichia coli asparaginase and polyethylene glycol conjugated asparaginase for treatment of children with newly diagnosed standard-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a Children’s Cancer Group study. Blood 99(6):1986–1994

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baindara P, Gautam A, Raghava G, Korpole S (2017) Anticancer properties of a defensin like class IId bacteriocin Laterosporulin10. Sci Rep 7:46541

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Baker JM, Chase DM, Herbst-Kralovetz MM (2018) Uterine microbiota: residents, tourists, or invaders? Front Immunol 9:208

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Balgir PP, Bhatia P, Kaur B (2010) Sequence analysis and homology based modeling to assess structure-function relationship of pediocin CP2 of Pediococcus acidilactici MTCC 5101. Indian J Microtechnol 9:431–434

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Black JD, Lopez S, Cocco E, Schwab CL, English DP, Santin AD (2015) Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) and CPE-binding domain (c-CPE) for the detection and treatment of gynecologic cancers. Toxins 7(4):1116–1125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Borella F, Carosso AR, Cosma S, Preti M, Collemi G, Cassoni P, Bertero L, Benedetto C (2021) Gut microbiota and gynecological cancers: a summary of pathogenetic mechanisms and future directions. ACS Infect Dis 7(5):987–1009

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braundmeier AG, Lenz KM, Inman KS, Chia N, Jeraldo P, Walther-António MR, Berg Miller ME, Yang F, Creedon DJ, Nelson H (2015) Individualized medicine and the microbiome in reproductive tract. Front Physiol 6:97

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A (2018) Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 68(6):394–424

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cagel M, Grotz E, Bernabeu E, Moretton MA, Chiappetta DA (2017) Doxorubicin: nanotechnological overviews from bench to bedside. Drug Discov Today 22(2):270–281

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron A, Zaheer R, Adator EH, Barbieri R, Reuter T, McAllister TA (2019) Bacteriocin occurrence and activity in Escherichia coli isolated from bovines and wastewater. Toxins 11(8):475

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Cao C, Yan TD, Black D, Morris DL (2009) A systematic review and meta-analysis of cytoreductive surgery with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis of colorectal origin. Ann Surg Oncol 16(8):2152–2165

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cascales E, Buchanan SK, Duché D, Kleanthous C, Lloubes R, Postle K, Riley M, Slatin S, Cavard D (2007) Colicin biology. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 71(1):158–229

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers LM, Bussies P, Vargas R, Esakov E, Tewari S, Reizes O, Michener C (2021) The microbiome and gynecologic cancer: Current evidence and future opportunities. Curr Oncol Rep 23(8):1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clairmont C, Lee K, Pike J, Ittensohn M, Low K, Pawelek J, Bermudes D, Brecher S, Margitich D, Turnier J (2000) Biodistribution and genetic stability of the novel antitumor agent VNP20009, a genetically modified strain of Salmonella typhimuvium. J Infect Dis 181(6):1996–2002

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Danino T, Prindle A, Hasty J, Bhatia S (2013) Measuring growth and gene expression dynamics of tumor-targeted S. typhimurium bacteria. JoVE 77:e50540

    Google Scholar 

  • Denny WA (2004) Tumor-activated prodrugs—a new approach to cancer therapy. Cancer Invest 22(4):604–619

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DeSantis CE, Lin CC, Mariotto AB, Siegel RL, Stein KD, Kramer JL, Alteri R, Robbins AS, Jemal A (2014) Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2014. CA Cancer J Clin 64(4):252–271

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deutscher SL (2010) Phage display in molecular imaging and diagnosis of cancer. Chem Rev 110(5):3196–3211

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ding L, Lu Z, Lu Q, Chen Y-H (2013) The claudin family of proteins in human malignancy: a clinical perspective. Cancer Manage Res 5:367

    Google Scholar 

  • Egger C, Cannet C, Gérard C, Jarman E, Jarai G, Feige A, Suply T, Micard A, Dunbar A, Tigani B (2013) Administration of bleomycin via the oropharyngeal aspiration route leads to sustained lung fibrosis in mice and rats as quantified by UTE-MRI and histology. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063432

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Erdmann VA, Barciszewska MZ, Szymanski M, Hochberg A, GrootBarciszewski NJ (2001) The non-coding RNAs as riboregulators. Nucleic Acids Res 29(1):189–193

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Farkas-Himsley H, Hill R, Rosen B, Arab S, Lingwood C (1995) The bacterial colicin active against tumor cells in vitro and in vivo is verotoxin 1. Proc Natl Acad Sci 92(15):6996–7000

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fujimori M (2006) Genetically engineered bifidobacterium as a drug delivery system for systemic therapy of metastatic breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer 13(1):27–31

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gao Z, McClane BA (2012) Use of Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin and the enterotoxin receptor-binding domain (C-CPE) for cancer treatment: opportunities and challenges. J Toxicol. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/981626

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gedde MM, Higgins DE, Tilney LG, Portnoy DA (2000) Role of listeriolysin O in cell-to-cell spread of Listeria monocytogenes. Infect Immun 68:999–1003

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goldufsky JWS, Hajihossainlou B, Rehman T, Majdobeh OL, Kaufman HE, Ruby CH, Shafikhani S (2015) Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin T induces potent cytotoxicity against a variety of murine and human cancer cell lines. J Med Microbiol 64:164–173

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gontero P, Bohle A, Malmstrom P-U, O’Donnell MA, Oderda M, Sylvester R, Witjes F (2010) The role of bacillus Calmette-Guérin in the treatment of non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Eur Urol 57(3):410–429

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gunn GR, Zubair A, Peters C, Pan Z-K, Wu T-C, Paterson Y (2001) Two Listeria monocytogenes vaccine vectors that express different molecular forms of human papilloma virus-16 (HPV-16) E7 induce qualitatively different T cell immunity that correlates with their ability to induce regression of established tumors immortalized by HPV-16. J Immunol 167(11):6471–6479

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hetz C, Bono MR, Barros LF, Lagos R (2002) Microcin E492, a channel-forming bacteriocin from Klebsiella pneumoniae, induces apoptosis in some human cell lines. Proc Natl Acad Sci 99(5):2696–2701

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hong KH, Hong SK, Cho SI, Ra E, Han KH, Kang SB, Kim E-C, Park SS, Seong M-W (2016) Analysis of the vaginal microbiome by next-generation sequencing and evaluation of its performance as a clinical diagnostic tool in vaginitis. Ann Lab Med 36(5):441–449

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone SA, Gelmon K, Mayer LD, Hancock RE, Bally MB (2000) In vitro characterization of the anticancer activity of membrane-active cationic peptides. I. Peptide-mediated cytotoxicity and peptide-enhanced cytotoxic activity of doxorubicin against wild-type and p-glycoprotein over-expressing tumor cell lines. Anticancer Drug Des 15(2):151–160

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones A, Jonsson A-B, Aro H (2007) Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection causes a G1 arrest in human epithelial cells. FASEB J 21(2):345–355

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karpiński T, Szkaradkiewicz A, Gamian A (2013) New enterococcal anticancer peptide. In: Proceedings of the 23rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Berlin, Germany

  • Karpiński T (2012) New peptide (Entap) with anti-proliferative activity produced by bacteria of Enterococcus genus, Habilitation thesis. Scientific Publisher of Poznań University of Medical

  • Kaur B, Balgir PP, Mittu B, Kumar B, Garg N (2013) Biomedical applications of fermenticin HV6b isolated from Lactobacillus fermentum HV6b MTCC10770. BioMed Res Int. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/168438

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lemichez E, Barbieri JT (2013) General aspects and recent advances on bacterial protein toxins. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med 3(2):a013573

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leschner S, Westphal K, Dietrich N, Viegas N, Jablonska J, Lyszkiewicz M, Lienenklaus S, Falk W, Gekara N, Loessner H (2009) Tumor invasion of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is accompanied by strong hemorrhage promoted by TNF-α. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016369

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Löfmark S, de Klerk N, Aro H (2011) Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection induces altered amphiregulin processing and release. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016369

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzi PL, Reinhold WC, Rudelius M, Gunsior M, Shankavaram U, Bussey KJ, Scherf U, Eichler GS, Martin SE, Chin K (2006) Asparagine synthetase as a causal, predictive biomarker for L-asparaginase activity in ovarian cancer cells. Mol Cancer Ther 5(11):2613–2623

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lulla RR, Goldman S, Yamada T, Beattie CW, Bressler L, Pacini M, Pollack IF, Fisher PG, Packer RJ, Dunkel IJ (2016) Phase I trial of p28 (NSC745104), a non-HDM2-mediated peptide inhibitor of p53 ubiquitination in pediatric patients with recurrent or progressive central nervous system tumors: a pediatric brain tumor consortium study. Neuro Oncol 18(9):1319–1325

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Macklaim JM, Cohen CR, Donders G, Gloor GB, Hill JE, Parham GP, Ravel J, Spear G, van de Wijgert J, Reid G (2012) Exploring a road map to counter misconceptions about the cervicovaginal microbiome and disease. Reprod Sci 19(11):1154–1162

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Martarelli DP, Mazzoni MG (2009) Inhibition of adrenocortical carcinoma by diphtheria toxin mutant CRM197. Chemotherapy 55:425–432

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin DH, Marrazzo JM (2016) The vaginal microbiome: current understanding and future directions. J infect Dis 214(1):S36–S41

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuo YK, Yamori T, Kasai H, Katsuta A, Adachi K, Shin-Ya K, Shizuri Y (2007) Urukthapelstatin A, a novel cytotoxic substance from marine-derived Mechercharimyces asporophorigenens YM11-542. I. Fermentation, isolation and biological activities. J Antibiot 60:251–25

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, E. F. (2006). "The toxins of William B. Coley and the treatment of bone and soft-tissue sarcomas." Iowa Orthopaedic J 26: 154.

  • Mehta RR, Yamada T, Taylor BN, Christov K, King ML, Majumdar D, Lekmine F, Tiruppathi C, Shilkaitis A, Bratescu L (2011) A cell penetrating peptide derived from azurin inhibits angiogenesis and tumor growth by inhibiting phosphorylation of VEGFR-2, FAK and Akt. Angiogenesis 14(3):355–369

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mizrahi A, Czerniak A, Levy T, Amiur S, Gallula J, Matouk I, Abu-lail R, Sorin V, Birman T, de Groot N (2009) Development of targeted therapy for ovarian cancer mediated by a plasmid expressing diphtheria toxin under the control of H19 regulatory sequences. J Transl Med 7(1):69

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mizrahi A, Czerniak A, Ohana P, Amiur S, Gallula J, Matouk I, Abu-lail R, Birman T, Hochberg A, Levy T (2010) Treatment of ovarian cancer ascites by intra-peritoneal injection of diphtheria toxin A chain-H19 vector: a case report. J Med Case Rep 4(1):228

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy J (2011) Mechanism of diphtheria toxin catalytic domain delivery to the eukaryotic cell cytosol and the cellular factors that directly participate in the process. Toxins 3:294–308

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Obrig TG, Moran TP, Brown JE (1987) The mode of action of Shiga toxin on peptide elongation of eukaryotic protein synthesis. Biochem J 244:287–294

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Oh H, Kim B-S, Seo S-S, Kong J-S, Lee J-K, Park S-Y, Hong K-M, Kim H-K, Kim M (2015) The association of uterine cervical microbiota with an increased risk for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in Korea. Clin Microbiol Infect 21(7):674.e671-674.e679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohana P, Gofrit O, Ayesh S, Al-Sharef W, Mizrahi A, Birman T, Schneider T, Matouk I, de Groot N, Tavdy E (2004) Regulatory sequences of the H19 gene in DNA based therapy of bladder cancer. Gene Ther Mol Biol 8(8):181–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohana P, Schachter P, Ayesh B, Mizrahi A, Birman T, Schneider T, Matouk I, Ayesh S, Kuppen PJ, de Groot N (2005) Regulatory sequences of H19 and IGF2 genes in DNA-based therapy of colorectal rat liver metastases. J Gene Med 7(3):366–374

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pec J Jr, Kliment J, Moravcik P, Fetisov I, Pecova K (1990) Isolation of Neisseria gonorrheae and concomitant bacterial microflora from urine obtained by suprapubic bladder puncture in women with gonococcal urethritis. Int Urol Nephrol 22(2):167–171

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piyathilake CJ, Ollberding NJ, Kumar R, Macaluso M, Alvarez RD, Morrow CD (2016) Cervical microbiota associated with higher grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in women infected with high-risk human papillomaviruses. Cancer Prev Res 9(5):357–366

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ravel J, Gajer P, Abdo Z, Schneider GM, Koenig SS, McCulle SL, Karlebach S, Gorle R, Russell J, Tacket CO (2011) Vaginal microbiome of reproductive-age women. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108(Supplement 1):4680–4687

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts NJ, Zhang L, Janku F, Collins A, Bai R-Y, Staedtke V, Rusk AW, Tung D, Miller M, Roix J (2014) Intratumoral injection of Clostridium novyi-NT spores induces antitumor responses. Sci Transl Med 6(249):249ra111

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sahl H-G, Bierbaum G (1998) Lantibiotics: biosynthesis and biological activities of uniquely modified peptides from gram-positive bacteria. Annu Rev Microbiol 52(1):41–79

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Segerman ZJ, Roy B, Hecht SM (2013) Characterization of bleomycin-mediated cleavage of a hairpin DNA library. Biochemistry 52(31):5315–5327

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sidi AA, Ohana P, Benjamin S, Shalev M, Ransom JH, Lamm D, Hochberg A, Leibovitch I (2008) Phase I/II marker lesion study of intravesical BC-819 DNA plasmid in H19 over expressing superficial bladder cancer refractory to bacillus Calmette-Guerin. J Urol 180(6):2379–2383

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A (2019) Cancer statistics, 2019. CA Cancer J Clin 69(1):7–34

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taherian-Esfahani Z, Abedin-Do A, Nouri Z, Mirfakhraie R, Ghafouri-Fard S, Motevaseli E (2016) Lactobacilli differentially modulate mTOR and Wnt/β-catenin pathways in different cancer cell lines. Iran J Cancer Prev. https://doi.org/10.17795/ijcp-5369

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Trabert B, Waterboer T, Idahl A, Brenner N, Brinton LA, Butt J, Coburn SB, Hartge P, Hufnagel K, Inturrisi F (2019) Antibodies against Chlamydia trachomatis and ovarian cancer risk in two independent populations. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst 111(2):129–136

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Belkum MJ, Martin-Visscher LA, Vederas JC (2011) Structure and genetics of circular bacteriocins. Trends Microbiol 19(8):411–418

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wood SJ, Goldufsky JW, Bello D, Masood S, Shafikhani SH (2015) Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoT induces mitochondrial apoptosis in target host cells in a manner that depends on its GTPase-activating protein (GAP) domain activity. J Biol Chem 290(48):29063–29073

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn TA, Chawla A, Pollard JW (2013) Macrophage biology in development, homeostasis and disease. Nature 496(7446):445–455

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Zhang N, Zhao M, Hoffman RM (2015) Comparison of the selective targeting efficacy of Salmonella typhimurium A1-R and VNP20009 on the Lewis lung carcinoma in nude mice. Oncotarget 6(16):14625

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saman Soleimanpour.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yaghoubi, A., Khazaei, M., Ghazvini, K. et al. Bacterial Peptide and Bacteriocins in Treating Gynecological Cancers. Int J Pept Res Ther 28, 104 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10989-022-10411-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10989-022-10411-3

Keywords

Navigation