Magnetospirillum magneticum triggers apoptotic pathways in human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Abstract The use of bacteria in cancer immunotherapy has the potential to bypass many shortcomings of conventional treatments. The ability of anaerobic bacteria to preferentially accumulate and replicate in hypoxic regions of solid tumors, as a consequence of bacterial metabolic needs, is particularly advantageous and key to boosting their immunostimulatory therapeutic actions in situ. While several of these bacterial traits are well-studied, little is known about their competition for nutrients and its effect on cancer cells which could serve as another potent and innate antineoplastic action. Here we explored the nutrient-scavenging abilities of a particular species of bacteria, Magnetospirillum magneticum, which has been studied as a potential new class of bacteria for magnetically targeted bacterial cancer therapy. We investigated their influence on the tumor microenvironment and studied the consequential metabolic effects exerted on cancer cells. To do so, we established an in vitro co-culture system consisting of the strain AMB-1 incubated under hypoxic conditions with human breast cancer cells. We first quantified the number of viable cells after incubation with magnetotactic bacteria demonstrating a lower rate of cellular proliferation that correlated with increasing bacteria-to-cancer-cells ratio. Further experiments showed increasing populations of apoptotic cells when cancer cells were incubated with AMB-1 over a period of 24h. Analysis of the metabolic effects induced by bacteria revealed an increase in the activation of executioner caspases as well as changes in levels of apoptosis-related proteins. Finally, the level of several human apoptosis-related proteins was investigated, confirming a bacteria-dependent triggering of apoptotic pathways in breast cancer cells. Overall, our findings indicate that magnetotactic bacteria could act as self-replicating iron-chelating agents that interfere with proliferation and lead to increased apoptosis of cancer cells. This bacterial feature could serve as an additional antineoplastic mechanism to reinforce current bacterial cancer therapies.