Heterogeneous cancers are usually recalcitrant to the conventional treatment method involving chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This issue was addressed by development of magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT) based on Escherichia coli. To be functional, E. coli was constructed to display the bivalent anti-HER2 affibody (denoted ZH2) on cell surface. The ZH2-displayed strain was further equipped with the biotin-binding motif (AP) which was anchored on the inner leaflet of cell membrane. After permeabilization, the engineered E. coli was loaded with streptavidin-linked magnetic nanoparticles (SiMNPs). The biotinylated AP tethers it to SiMNPs through the biotin-streptavidin interaction. As a result, SiMNPs-loaded E. coli was selectively internalized by HER2-positive cancer cells. Following the application of alternating magnetic field, the viability of cancer cells decreased to 20%. The administration in vivo also significantly caused tumor regression in mice xenografted with human ovarian cancer cells. Overall, this study proposes a new strategy of targeted cancer therapy based on the E. coli-mediated MHT.

异质性癌症通常难以接受包括化学疗法和放射疗法在内的常规治疗方法。这个问题已通过基于大肠杆菌的磁热疗 (MHT) 的开发得到解决。为了发挥功能，大肠杆菌被构建为在细胞表面展示二价抗 HER2 亲和体（表示为 ZH2）。ZH2 展示的菌株进一步配备了生物素结合基序 (AP)，该基序锚定在细胞膜的内小叶上。透化后，工程大肠杆菌装载有链霉亲和素连接的磁性纳米粒子 (SiMNP)。生物素化的 AP 通过生物素-链霉亲和素相互作用将其与 SiMNP 相连。结果，加载了 SiMNPs 的大肠杆菌被 HER2 阳性癌细胞选择性内化。施加交变磁场后，癌细胞的存活率下降到 20%。体内给药还显着导致异种移植人卵巢癌细胞的小鼠的肿瘤消退。总的来说，这项研究提出了一种基于大肠杆菌介导的 MHT的靶向癌症治疗新策略。