Photoelectric Bacteria Enhance the <i>In Situ</i> Production of Tetrodotoxin for Antitumor Therapy.

Abstract

Engineered bacteria are promising bioagents to synthesize antitumor drugs at tumor sites with the advantages of avoiding drug leakage and degradation during delivery. Here, we report an optically controlled material-assisted microbial system by biosynthesizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the surface of <i>Shewanella algae</i> K3259 (<i>S. algae</i>) to obtain Bac@Au. Leveraging the dual directional electron transport mechanism of <i>S. algae</i>, the hybrid biosystem enhances <i>in situ</i> synthesis of antineoplastic tetrodotoxin (TTX) for a promising antitumor effect. Because of tumor hypoxia-targeting feature of facultative anaerobic <i>S. algae</i>, Bac@Au selectively target and colonize at tumor. Upon light irradiation, photoelectrons produced by AuNPs deposited on bacterial surface are transferred into bacterial cytoplasm and participate in accelerated cell metabolism to increase the production of TTX for antitumor therapy. The optically controlled material-assisted microbial system enhances the efficiency of bacterial drug synthesis <i>in situ</i> and provides an antitumor strategy that could broaden conventional therapy boundaries.