With this procedure, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, the team discovered how these strains target cells that proliferate rapidly over mature ones, making them an ideal option to attack rapidly growing cancer cells in the adult brain.
This is potentially a new treatment alternative for brain cancer patients who currently have a poor prognosis.
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common malignant brain cancer, with more than 300 thousand patients diagnosed annually worldwide, with low survival rates (around 15 months), mainly due to the high incidence of the tumor and limited medication options. . For these patients, oncolytic virotherapy, or the use of viruses designed to infect and kill cancer cells, may address current therapeutic challenges.
According to the authors of the research, the Zika virus is one of those options in the early stages of development, with the use of strains of the live attenuated vaccine of the germ (ZIKV-LAV), weakened and with a limited capacity to infect cells. healthy but can still grow rapidly and spread within a tumor mass.
Dr Carla Bianca Luena, principal investigator of the Duke-NUS Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Research Programme, said the team determined that the ZIKV-LAV strains were very effective at infecting cancer cells.
These viruses bind to proteins that are present at high levels only in cancer cells and not in healthy cells, because by infecting a damaged one they hijack the cell’s resources to reproduce and ultimately kill it.
Through their experiments, these scientists observed that infection with ZIKV-LAV strains caused the death of 65 to 90 percent of glioblastoma multiforme tumor cells.
“When a live virus is attenuated so that it is safe and effective in combating infectious diseases, it can be beneficial to human health, not only as a vaccine but also as a potent tumor-eradicating agent,” said Ann-Marie Chacko of the Duke-NUS Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Research Programme.
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2024-03-09 12:15:00
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