A REVIEW: MICROBIAL ANTICANCER PIGMENTS

Cancer has become one of the biggest issues in the modern era with its treatment being a complex process which still can be unpredictable due to poor understanding of the cancer cells. The increasing number of cases without needed progress in therapy indicates the need of the hour to develop better treatments. Tobacco is the main cause of the cancer, followed by chemicals found in our environment. While the factors like tobacco can be avoided, others might be hard to avoid due to their presence in our environment. Conventional methods of anticancer therapies are effective only to some extent and in some cases leave worse effects on patient after treatment is done. Immunotherapy has been emerging out as the most promising research, especially the use of specific bacteria types. Using the pigments produced by them to fight of disease can bring a new range of biological drugs in the market with much better results. Different bacteria produce different pigments which have different colors, properties and mechanism of action. Though most of these pigments affect cancer cells by activating biomolecules that lead to apoptosis of cancer cells. This paper tries to look into a few bacteria and pigments produced by them, some of their properties and how they help to cure cancer and other diseases.