50 | OCTOBER 31 • 2019 

Healrth | Israel’s role

continued from page 48

ing to see if there are other 
genetic events or unspecified 
mutations.”
The next phase of 
Rennert’
s study involves eval-
uating the immune system 
of women who had been 
excluded from the previous 
phase of research based on 
BRCA1, BRCA2 or other 
gene mutations.
“Our project is not meant 
to look for environmental 
factors, but rather genet-
ics and immunological 
response,” he said. “We want 
to see if these women have a 
weakened immune response 
to a cancer attack.”

EXPLORING OTHER FACTORS
The effort to arrest the 
spread of breast cancer 
involves more than cancer 
experts.
Gilad Bachrach teaches 
at Hebrew University-
Hadassah’
s Institute of 
Dental Science in Jerusalem. 
A microbiologist who spe-
cializes in clinical diseases 
like tuberculosis and Malta 
fever, Bachrach has taken 
a particular interest in 
Fusobacterium nucleatum — 
a specific bacterium that was 
found recently within malig-
nant colon tumors.
Now in the second year 
of a $50,000-per-year ICRF 
grant, Bachrach runs one of 
only five labs worldwide that 
can genetically manipulate 
F. nucleatum. Since that par-
ticular bacterium in colon 
cancer originates from the 
mouth, he speculated that 
it might reach tumors via 
blood.
Specifically, a fusobacterial 
surface protein, Fap2, binds 
and activates a receptor 
on immune cells known as 
TIGIT, thereby suppress-

ing the ability of immune 
cells to destroy the tumor. 
Fusobacterium can travel to 
the colon not only through 
the gut but also through 
the blood, meaning it can 
reach other cancers as well, 
protecting them from the 
immune system.
“When you have gum dis-
ease, you bleed, and bacteria 
could enter,” said Bachrach, 
a former Israeli army tank 
commander who has done 
postdoctoral work at the 
National Institute of Medical 
Research in London and the 
National Institutes of Health 
in Bethesda, Maryland. “We 
found that they specifically 
colonized the tumor because 
they find sugar exposed on 
cancer cells. Then we looked 
for other cancers where this 
sugar is exposed, and one of 
them is breast cancer.”
To stop the spread of can-
cer, Bachrach says, clinicians 
should consider anti-spread-
ing agents, not just typical 
cancer treatments. It is pos-
sible that fighting this bacte-
ria will have implications for 
breast cancer patients.
“Antibiotics are drugs that 
can kill bacteria,” he said. 
“At some point, physicians 
should think about using 
antibiotics when they’
re 
treating people with can-
cers.”
Ultimately, Bachrach 
wants to re-engineer the 
fusobacterium to turn it into 
a cancer killer rather than a 
cancer protector.
“Our long-term goal,” he 
said, “is to engineer the fuso-
bacteria in order to colonize 
the cancer and kill it.” 

 
Larry Luxner is part of JTA’
s content 
team. The story was sponsored by 
the Israel Cancer Research Fund.

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