Figure 1.

A four-step framework for screening and identifying bacteria with cancer therapeutic potential. Bacterial library building within the context of this review entails all procedures involved in obtaining various bacterial DNAs (prospective candidates) from diverse sources (step 1). The procedure depicted in step 2 entails identifying genes important to bacterial cytotoxicity, chemotacticity, and immunogenicity in currently available therapeutic bacterial candidates, and then identifying the analogs or orthologs of those genes in prospective candidates. Step 3 identifies whether the prospects from step 2 are pathogenic to humans that need attenuation. Lastly, step 4 tests the prospects from step 3 in vivo and in vitro trials, including in cell lines that have not been previously investigated.