Intratumor bacteria could confer resistance to gemcitabine

In a paper published in Science, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science and colleagues showed that intratumor bacteria can metabolize the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine, inducing tumor resistance to the therapy.

The researchers analyzed 27 bacterial species incubated with gemcitabine and found that metabolism of the drug was mediated by expression of a long isoform of the bacterial enzyme cytidine deaminase (CDA) by certain bacterial species, principally those belonging to the Gammaproteobacteria class...