Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have built a new cancer treatment using a tiny piece of a bacterial protein. The protein lives naturally inside tumors.
In lab tests with prostate cancer, the treatment worked best when it was given together with radiation. It stopped tumors from growing by cutting off their energy supply.
Finding a New Way Around the p53 Gene
Scientists know that tumors contain many bacteria. They wondered if any of those bacteria make useful chemicals.
Earlier work found a bacterial protein called a cupredoxin that could slow tumor growth. That protein needed a gene called p53 to work, but many cancers have broken p53 genes.
Because of this, the team looked for another bacterial protein that works without p53.
Targeting the Cell’s Power Plants
The researchers studied tumor samples from breast‑cancer patients and identified a bacterium that makes a cupredoxin named auracyanin.
They trimmed auracyanin into a short piece and called it aurB. In the lab, aurB entered the mitochondria – the cell’s power plants – and attached to ATP synthase, the machine that makes the cell’s fuel.
Strong Results in Prostate Cancer Tests
When the scientists tested aurB on cancer cells that lack p53 and on mice with hormone‑resistant prostate cancer, the peptide slowed tumor growth a lot.
Adding radiation made the effect even stronger, and the mice showed no major side effects.
Looking Ahead
The university has patented aurB and is planning the next steps toward human trials.
Researchers believe many more bacterial proteins could become future cancer drugs. They just need to be discovered and tested.