Can you fight cancer with anthrax?

Anthrax has been used around the world as a biological weapon for nearly a century. But what if this deadly toxin could be used to fight cancer and save lives? Researchers at MIT are taking one of Earth's deadliest toxins and transforming it into a cancer killer.

"We're repurposing nature," explains Dr. Bradley Pentelute, assistant professor of chemistry at MIT. "It's going from the kiss of death to the kiss of life."

"The cell doesn't know what to do" when infected with Bacillus Anthraxis, the bacteria that produces anthrax toxin, Pentelute explains, "and that's why it's so toxic. Because once these molecules get into the cell, there's no return."

Since the toxin can get into nearly any cell, researchers wondered if that included cancer cells.

"Can we take nature's machinery and can we reengineer it so that, say, it's no longer toxic?" Pentelute asks. "But still eave one critical function, which is the delivery function."

That delivery function would deliver antibodies to target and kill cancer cells. It is now being tested in animal studies, paving the way for the development of new drugs for cancer.

"The delivery function allows us now to highjack that and deliver next generation cancer therapeutics inside cells," Pentelute explains.

Right now, research is focused n treating leukemia and brain cancer, but the delivery system could be used for other diseases in the future.