Fig. 4

Application of intratumoural microbiota in cancer therapy. a Antibiotics. Cell membrane-penetrating antibiotics and nano-antibiotics can target intratumoural microorganisms, thereby improving clinical drug efficacy. b Bacteriophages. Bacteriophages can precisely target and eliminate harmful microbes within tumours and provide an effective therapeutic load to attract antitumour immune cells to the attack site by being modified into programmable bacterial assassins. c Engineered bacteria. Engineered bacteria can exert significant antitumour effects through a variety of payload delivery and effector systems, such as the production of prodrug-converting enzymes, expression of controlled cytotoxic agents, stimulation of immune responses, and targeting of tumour stroma. d Oncolytic viruses. Oncolytic viruses can exploit dysregulated signalling pathways to cause cell lysis and death or damage blood vessels to reduce tumour cell growth. Oncolytic viruses can also increase PD-L1 expression in tumours and immune cells, resulting in more sensitive targets for anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy. Created with BioRender.com