Did the bacterium evolve to fight cancer in its host just due to selection pressure to prevent host death?
If that’s the case, I’m surprised it was able to do it better than its host’s immune system—I guess bacteria can evolve faster due to shorter generations?
I doubt tree frogs live long enough for the bacteria to have evolved to fight cancer as such. They are quite small.
They also produce of range of drugs secreted on their skin, including anti-virals for hiv, antibiotics (russian one,) one containing a super opiate, (south american desert one,) the poison dart ones, what else, there are others.
The toxins are not alkaloids but peptides, and tend to have a much shorter half time as active ingredients as I’m aware.
colorectal tumors
So that is a very specific type of tumor in an animal very different from humans
I’m sure its an interesting titbit but the way the title says it it suggests “all” cancers, which is nonsense
☞
The researchers emphasize that these findings are limited to mice, but they believe the results provide an encouraging proof of concept for developing new bacterial cancer therapies.
That mouse was also a very angry person all the time. Such an asshole to everyone. Like a cancer you could say. May he rest in peace.
