Researchers have used genetically modified phages to harness pre-existing vaccine immunity and destroy cancer cells in mice. The approach eradicated tumors in 44 percent of treated animals with no recurrence after a year.
A team at Imperial College London engineered a phage that normally infects E. coli to bind to integrins found on many tumor cells. They loaded it with genetic instructions to produce a malaria antigen, allowing the immune response from a prior malaria vaccine to target the cancer.
In the study, 15 vaccinated mice received six injections of the modified phages over two weeks. Tumors disappeared in 44 percent of these mice and did not return by the end of the one-year observation period. Treated mice overall survived longer than controls that received either the vaccine or phages alone.
The method avoids direct injection into tumors, unlike some existing virus-based therapies. The researchers are now in discussions with the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency about starting an early human trial next year.
They note that stronger vaccines, such as those for flu or COVID-19, could be substituted for the malaria vaccine to achieve similar effects.
