The Role Microbiome and Oncolytic Viruses Play in Controlling Cancer

There has been a lot of short backs from the use of the usual conventional anti-cancer therapy for treating cancer cells. Conventional anti-cancer therapy involves the use of chemical chemotherapeutics and radiation to treat cancer whereas sometimes it may include the use of surgery, hormones, and targeted therapy. These drawbacks and ineffectiveness of such therapies sometimes can aggravate other types of illness and cause tumor cells to become resistant to them. In an attempt to resolve these shortcomings, a new era of an alternative anti-tumor therapy has emerged which exhibits much greater specificity and efficacy in treating cancer. This new knowledge explores the use of microbes and oncolytic viruses as potential anti-cancer therapies. Most of these microbes and viruses are engineered or their metabolites are used as potential weapons for treating cancer cells. This review therefore discuss the role of microbiome and oncolytic viruses in controlling cancer. It also outline four ways through which microbiome control cancer treatment. We reviewed the microbiome metagenomic assessment, explained some evidence of microbiome oncogenesis, then again investigated the response and toxicity of microbiome on immunotherapy, and finally discuss the impact of microbiome activities on chemotherapy. We reported that, the metagenomic study of the 16s rRNA gene sequence plays a significant role in detecting bacterial species in natural specimens and establishing phylogenetic relationships in controlling cancer. The review again established that, some metabolites and vitamins produced by bacteria may be vital tools for interactions with epithelial and cancer cells for tumor growth suppression. We also found that, the efficacy of some chemotherapies especially the use of Cyclophosphamide (CTX) were microbiota-dependent. Moving forward, there should be an establishment of methods that will not undermine ethical issues when trying this therapy on humans. Moreover, safety measures should be taken to manipulate the composition of the microbiota with the aid of a strict screening system to eliminate harmful microbes before applying them.