The Zika virus is a major health concern for pregnant women and their fetuses, but new research indicates it could prove helpful in treating a malignant type of brain cancer.
Glioblastoma — the brain cancer in question — affects more than 12,000 people every year in the U.S. and more often than not kills people within a year. Research published Tuesday in The Journal of Experimental Medicine found that the Zika virus could be used for targeting cancer stem cells.
The Zika virus was isolated decades ago, but grabbed the world’s attention when babies born in Brazil in the past two years were diagnosed with microcephaly, which causes tiny, misshapen heads.
For their study, researchers injected the Zika virus or a saltwater placebo into the brain tumors of mice. They gave 18 mice the Zika virus and 15 the placebo. Those who received the Zika virus had much smaller tumors two weeks after the procedure and lived “significantly longer” as opposed to the other mice.
Researchers posit that based on their findings, the Zika infection and chemotherapy-radiation treatment (the standard but tough treatment, following surgery) work in a complementary fashion. The classic treatment destroys most of the tumor cells but typically doesn’t get rid of the stem cells that regenerate the tumor. That’s where the Zika virus comes in: It kills the stem cells and skirts by the bulkier section of the tumor.
Humans would have to receive the virus in the brain if this practice were to be tried on people. While notably damaging to fetal brains, the cells the virus would be targeting aren’t as common in the adult brain. Dr. Michael Diamond, one of the study authors and the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine, told the BBC he wants to start human trials in the next 18 months.
“It looks like there’s a silver lining to Zika,” Diamond told the BBC. “This virus that targets cells that are very important for brain growth in babies, we could use that now to target growing tumors.”
In addition to the mice experiment, researchers studied the virus further through the examination of brain tissue from epilepsy patients and found that the virus doesn’t harm noncancerous brain cells. They also, as a precautionary measure, created two mutations for the virus that work to stop cells’ defenses from infection in tumor cells, though the mutated virus wouldn’t last long in healthy cells.
“We’re going to introduce additional mutations to sensitize the virus even more to the innate immune response and prevent the infection from spreading,” Diamond added in a news release.
Glioblastomas are typically “more common in males, persons older than 50, and people of Caucasian or Asian ethnicity,” according to Dr. John de Groot of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced he was diagnosed with the cancer in July.
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Zika Virus Could Someday Treat Deadly Brain Cancer, Research Suggests originally appeared on usnews.com
