Salmonella and Biotechnology

Salmonella strains have been actively studied as live carriers of heterologous antigens for a possible vaccine application. Especially, Salmonella Typhimurium , a facultative anaer-obe, has been adapted as an antitumor agent capable of preferentially proliferating within tumors and inhibiting their growth. To enhance the cancer therapeutic efficacy of S. Typhimurium , combinations of gene-directed protein or microRNA therapies and auxotrophic strains of S. Typhimurium have been generated by genetic engineering. Until now, the idea of using bacteria including Salmonella in the treatments of cancer and other diseases has been considered a novel approach. Here, we describe this application based on Salmonella engineering for treatments of cancer or atopic dermatitis.