In vivo capture of bacterial cells by remote guiding

Abstract

Recently, it has been shown that several bacterial strains can be very efficient in cancer treatment since they possess many important properties such as self-targeting, ease of detection, sensing and toxicity against tumors. However, there are only a few relevant “candidates” for such an approach, as targeting and detection one of the biggest challenges as well as there are many limitations in the use of genetic approaches. Here, it is proposed the solution that enables surface modification of alive bacterial cells without interfering with their genetic material and potentially reduces their toxic side effect. By the electrostatic interaction fluorescently labeled polyelectrolytes (PEs) and magnetite nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited on the bacterial cell surface to control the cell growth, distribution and detection of bacteria. According to the results obtained in vivo, by the magnet entrapment of the modified bacteria the local concentration of the cells was increased more than 5 times, keeping the high concentrations even when the magnet is removed. Since the PEs create a strong barrier, in vitro it was shown that the division time of the cells can be regulated for better immune presentation.