Yale University Scientists Discover Virus Infection that Fights Brain Cancer
What is a brain tumor?
A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in the brain. The tumor can either originate in the brain itself, or come from another part of the body and travel to the brain (metastasize). Brain tumors may be classified as either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous), depending on their behavior.
A benign tumor does not contain cancer cells and usually, once removed, does not recur. Most benign brain tumors have clear borders, meaning they do not invade surrounding tissue. These tumors can, however, cause symptoms similar to cancerous tumors because of their size and location in the brain. [Via]
At Yale University, scientist have discovered a virus infection that can fight brain cancer. Healing a disease by causing another one seems un-useful, but actually thats what the scientist at Yale have done. Basically, they modified a virus and injected it in to a mice which has several tumor that cannot be treated by sugary. Only three days later, the tumors were gone. “The brain cancers we look at are very nasty,” said Anthony Van den Pol, a scientist at Yale University and a study author. “This virus is pretty good at killing all of the tumor cells.”
For the new treatment, the researchers used a virus related to rabies called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Endemic to Central America, the virus causes mild, cold-like symptoms in humans and is based on single-stranded RNA instead of the doubled-up DNA. This is not the first attmpt to destroy tumor using viruses, but researchers at the Mayo Clinic have been working on virus-based cancer treatments for years. Two years ago a team lead by Steven Forsyth at the University of Calgary used VSV against brain tumors and had similar results.
“You are dealing with 25,000 patients each year who have no hope,” said Harald Sontheimer, a neurobiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who was not involved in the research. “Radiation prolongs life some, surgery does somewhat, and chemotherapy is not effective. Any research that takes a new tack is exciting.”
The research is published in the Feb. 20, 2008 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
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