Provided are delivery immunostimulatory
bacteria that have enhanced
colonization of tumors, the
tumor microenvironment and / or tumor-resident immune cells, and enhanced anti-tumor activity. The immunostimulatory
bacteria are modified by deletion of genes encoding the flagella or by modification of the genes so that functional flagella are not produced, and / or are modified by deletion of pagP or modification of pagP to produce inactive PagP product. As a result, the immunostimulatory
bacteria are
flagellin" and / or pagP'. The immunostimulatory bacteria optionally have additional genomic modifications so that the bacteria are
adenosine and / or
purine auxotrophs. The bacteria optionally are one or more of asct, purl' and msbB'. The immunostimulatory bacteria, such as
Salmonella species, are modified to
encode proteins that induce type I
interferon (IFN) expression, or that are variants thereof that have increased activity to induce type I IFN expression, or that are variants thereof that result in constitutive expression of type I IFN. The bacteria can
encode a modified
Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING)
protein from a non-human species, that has lower NF-kappaB signaling activity, and, optionally, higher type I IFN
pathway signaling activity, compared to human STING. The bacteria preferentially infect immune cells in the
tumor microenvironment, or tumor-resident immune cells, and / or induce less
cell death in immune cells than in other cells. Also provided are methods of inhibiting the growth or reducing the volume of a
solid tumor by administering the immunostimulatory bacteria.