Olive Oil Bacteria May Benefit Bladder Cancer Treatment

An olive oil-based emulsion offers promise as a potential delivery vehicle for mycobacterium therapy for bladder cancer, according to a recent study.

A year ago, researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona announced that the cells of Mycobacterium brumae offer an improved alternative to current bladder cancer treatments. However, researchers have since been exploring ways to improve the immunotherapeutic activity of M. brumae by designing different emulsions that can increase the stability, homogeneity, and efficacy of the mycobacteria solutions.

When mycobacteria cells are introduced into the normal aqueous solutions used for intravesical instillation in bladder cancer patients, clumps are naturally produced that contain a high content of lipids in their walls, according to the study published in Scientific Reports. Since the clumping could interfere with the interaction of the mycobacteria-host cells and negatively affect their anti-tumor effects, researchers found a way to reduce the clumps.

During the experiment, researchers found that olive oil-based emulsion induced a prominent immune response in both in vitro and in vivo.

The findings suggest that olive oil preserves the viability of the mycobacteria, while also creating higher anti-clumping rates that indicate favorable conditions for reaching the bladder.

“These results highlight the potential of the olive oil-based emulsion as a promising delivery vehicle for the mycobacterial treatment of bladder cancer,” said lead researcher Esther Julián.