An LSU microbiologist has discovered a way to fight human cancer cells using a notorious bacterium that kills nearly 20,000 people per year.
Dr. Chen Chen, an assistant professor of biological sciences at LSU, is an expert on Staphylococcus aureus and how it attacks the human body. Chen discovered that one of the 14 proteins staph produces could be used to attack cancer cells without harming healthy cells as much as other treatments.
Chen’s research found that a protein called SSLL11 targets cells that have a sugar structure on them known as glycan Sialyl Lewis X. Immune cells typically have these structures on them, but SLeX is also commonly found on cancer cells.
Chen said that she had a “crazy idea” to reengineer a protein from staph and take advantage of the protein’s ability to bind to a cancer marker and prevent cell migration to create a platform for cancer treatment.
“We actually have a platform where I can deliver cancer therapy to multiple different cancer types because this marker is actually established in clinics as a cancer marker,” Chen said.
Last year, over 600,000 people died from cancer or cancer-related illnesses, many of whom were diagnosed with cancer in the late stages of the disease when treatment is sometimes not feasible. Chen hopes that her innovation can give otherwise-hopeless patients a chance at recovery.
“At the end stages of cancer, many patients lost hope and were miserable and even lost the opportunity to have a surgery for the removal of the cancer because of certain things or because of massive metastasis,” Chen said. “I was thinking maybe using this because it’s more malignant, the mode of the marker will actually be more effective for our platform. Maybe this will allow those patients, especially in the end stage to regain those surgery opportunities or treatment.”
Gianluca Veggiani, an assistant professor in pathobiological sciences, believes this development is an example of how evolutionary distinctions can be used to fight cancer.
“The study illustrates how evolutionary specificity can be rationally harnessed for therapeutic design and represents a promising direction for developing highly selective anticancer agents with reduced off-target effects,” Veggiani explained.
Emma Ebel, a junior studying biological sciences, found this discovery to be profound because of the way it can impact the future of cancer research.
“Who knew such a common bacteria that can cause harm in some could be used to benefit so many others?” she said. “I think that this research is important because this is just a new stepping stone in new innovations in finding cures for cancer, specifically targeting cancer cells.”
Chen plans to continue working on this research to develop it as a platform to help cancer patients in their fight against this deadly disease.
“I want to continue to work on this because I want to help find more tools against cancer because I always say nowadays almost everybody knows somebody directly or indirectly diagnosed with cancer one way or the other,” she said.
