# Engineered bacteria: a novel era for metabolic, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases therapy

**Authors:** Yuzhe Wu, Ruiqi Sang, Xiangnan Chen, Songyun Wang

PMC · DOI: 10.3389/fcvm.2026.1757348 · Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine · 2026-03-10

## TL;DR

This review explores how engineered bacteria could help treat metabolic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases by targeting gut microbiota and metabolites.

## Contribution

The paper provides a novel review on engineered bacteria's potential in treating metabolic and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, an area lacking prior comprehensive analysis.

## Key findings

- Engineered bacteria show promise in altering gut microbiota and metabolites linked to disease progression.
- Current applications of engineered bacteria extend beyond cancer to include metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
- Challenges remain in strain selection and design for effective therapeutic use.

## Abstract

There are a large number of people suffer from metabolic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases, posing a significant threat to public health. Previous studies have suggested that cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are frequently accompanied by changes in intestinal flora and metabolites, which play a crucial role in the progression of metabolic, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Engineered bacteria, as a tool for efficiently expressing foreign genes within a bacterial cell line, has attracted considerable attention for cancer treatment over the past decades. In recent years, engineered bacteria has been extended to metabolic disorders, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases therapy and has been a promising tool. However, several challenges persist, including the necessity of more refined strain selection and design. Furthermore, there is no relevant review on the application of engineering bacteria in the fields of metabolic diseases and cardiovascular diseases currently. Therefore, this review is aimed to explore the alterations of intestinal microbiota and metabolome associated with metabolic and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, as well as the potential application of engineered bacteria in treating these conditions.

## Full-text entities

- **Diseases:** cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (MESH:D002318), cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (MESH:D002561), metabolic diseases (MESH:D008659), cancer (MESH:D009369)
- **Species:** Bacteria Latreille et al. 1825 (Bacteria stick insect, genus) [taxon 629395]

## Full text

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## Figures

6 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC13008699/full.md

## References

86 references — full list in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC13008699/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC13008699