Targeted cancer immunotherapy with genetically engineered oncolytic Salmonella typhimurium

Conventional chemotherapies have some limitations, including the lack of selectivity, high toxicity to normal tissues, multidrug resistance, and tumor relapse. Recently, great progress was made in immunotherapies for anticancer research, with bacteria-mediated cancer therapy one of the most promising approaches among them. Attenuated Salmonella have very specific targeting to various solid cancers, making them ideal vectors for the delivery and expression of immunostimulators. They have native bacterial immunogenicity and induce strong anticancer immunity in vivo. In this review, the recent advances in Salmonella-mediated cancer immunotherapies and the related mechanisms of Salmonella-based cancer therapies are summarized. •The recent advantages of attenuated Salmonella-based cancer immunotherapy are summarized.•Modification of tumor microenvironment with attenuated bacteria increases the sensitivities to chemotherapies.•Future potentials of bacteria-based cancer immunotherapy for clinical translation are discussed.