Zika harnessed to fight cancer

TUMOUR KILLER: VIRUS DEADLY FOR KIDS, NOT ADULTS

UK study suggests it may help treat aggressive form of brain disease.

survival rate of barely 5%.

The researchers are led by Harry Bulstrode at Cambridge University in the UK.

Zika causes severe disability in babies by attacking developing stem cells in the brain – but in adults, whose brains are fully formed, it often causes no more than mild flu-like symptoms.

In glioblastoma, the cancer cells are similar to those in the developing brain, suggesting the virus could be used to target them while sparing normal adult brain tissue.

Existing treatments have to be given at low doses to avoid damaging healthy tissue.

The mosquito-borne virus has spread to 60 countries in a global outbreak that was first identified in Brazil in 2015.

“Zika virus infection in babies and children is a major global health concern and the focus has been to discover more about the virus to find new possible treatments,” Bulstrode said.

“We ... want to use these new insights to see if the virus can be unleashed against one of the hardest-to-treat cancers ... We hope to show that the Zika virus can slow down brain tumour growth in tests in the lab. If we can learn lessons from Zika’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and target brain stem cells selectively, we could be holding the key to future treatments.” – Reuters