Scientists report cancer-killing potential of Zika virus

ORLANDO, Fla.—Dr. Kenneth Alexander was driving home one day last year when he thought of the idea: What if the Zika virus could be used to kill a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma?

The Zika outbreak was in its third year and scientists had learned that the virus damages the nervous systems of unborn babies by destroying the developing nerve cells.

Those developing nerve cells also make up neuroblastomas.

So, Alexander, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Nemours Children’s Hospital, started brainstorming with a surgeon colleague and brought on board Dr. Griffith Parks, a University of Central Florida scientist who has been studying Zika.

After nearly year of research, the team published the preliminary results of their first study, showing that neuroblastoma cells that were exposed to the Zika virus in the laboratory died 10 days after being infected, making the virus a potential treatment for the cancer.

The team’s findings have been published in PLOS One.

“This is like all good ideas. It’s early and there may be a fly in the ointment,” Alexander said in an interview Wednesday. “But at this point things are looking promising. The path ahead is there and we hope to get lots of other people interested in this research.”

Neuroblastoma is the cancer of nerve cells that reside outside of the brain. It’s the second most common types of childhood cancer and has a disproportionately high mortality rate compared to other childhood cancers. It mostly affects infants and children under age 5.