Treating cancers with an aggressive, localised virus is not a new idea. It is an idea scientists have been exploring for years, to little success. For cancers that have spread beyond the primary infection site, called metastatic cancers, it doesn’t work well at all. This is mostly due to the immune system attacking the perceived threat as soon as possible. A new stealth virus may overcome this obstacle, however.
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A research team from Case Western Reserve and Emory has modified human adenovirus to create a stealth virus that serves as a weapon against metastatic cancers. It does this by slipping past the immune system – it utilises key mutations and proteins that increases its chances of non-detection. It also stops the virus from causing illness to the subject or producing a dangerous inflammatory reaction.
According to researchers, this potential treatment is significantly safer than more localised remedies, as it means doctors don’t need to deliver a lot of virus directly to the tumour site. It would also then assist in treating the entire body, rather than just the main tumour. The virus could be reworked in time, so that it can treat different types of cancer and even include genes and proteins that foster cancer immunity.
We are still in the early days of the research, of course, but the preliminary results are extremely promising. The research shows that tumours in some mice with implanted human lung cancer cells were eliminated, but only 35 percent appeared to be tumour free. The medical community is hoping that the results improve over time and that we could move to practical application sooner rather than later.
This phase of the research is still years away. But even though it won’t cure cancer anytime soon, there is a lot of optimism in the medical community that it could slow the rate of infection in late-stage cancers to buy patients valuable time.
