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. 2022 Mar 17;40(8):1259–1269. doi: 10.1038/s41587-022-01244-y

Fig. 1. Programmable CAP system for control over bacterial encapsulation and in vivo delivery profiles.

Fig. 1

a, We engineered the biosynthetic pathway of bacterial CAP for tunable and dynamic surface modulation of the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 with synthetic gene circuits. This approach enables increased CAP levels upon induction to control immune evasion and clearance. b, The programmable CAP system enhances systemic delivery of bacteria by transiently expressing CAP. Non-CAP bacteria (thin gray cells) elicit toxicity by exposing the immunogenic bacterial surface, and permanently CAP-expressing bacteria (thick black cells) lead to overgrowth. The iCAP (blue cells) system enables transient encapsulation of bacteria, thus reducing initial inflammation while effectively clearing bacteria over time. c, The CAP system controls bacterial translocation among tumors. The iCAP system allows in situ activation of CAP in one tumor, which results in inducible bacteria translocation to distal, uncolonized tumors.