Engineering advanced bacterial therapy for tumor and inflammatory diseases

Bacteria have emerged as a promising living medicine for diseases in recent years. With rapid advancements in synthetic biology and materials science, engineered bacterial therapy has encountered new opportunities. Leveraging inherent genetic reprogramming capabilities and surface chemistry modification advantages, engineered bacterial therapy enables selective functional recombination and precise spatiotemporal control, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy against diseases. This review summarizes the advantages of engineered bacterial therapy and various engineering strategies employed. Moreover, it outlines representative studies of engineered bacterial therapy in the treatment of tumors and inflammatory diseases, summarizing diverse engineered approaches that enhance the efficacy for these conditions, offering novel avenues for efficient disease management. In addition, current limitations and challenges in utilizing engineered bacterial therapy are discussed, providing insights for further innovation in biomedicine. Specifically, the potential and prospects of oral engineered bacteria in treating gastrointestinal tumors and inflammatory diseases have been explored.