Glioblastomas are relentless, hard-to-treat, and often lethal brain
tumors. Yale scientists have enlisted a most unlikely ally in efforts to treat
this form of cancer — elements of the Ebola virus.
“The irony is that one of the world’s deadliest viruses may be useful in
treating one of the deadliest of brain cancers,” said Yale’s Anthony van den
Pol, professor of neurosurgery, who describes the Yale efforts Feb. 12 in the Journal
of Virology.
The approach
takes advantage of a weakness in most cancer tumors and also of an Ebola
defense against the immune system response to pathogens.
Unlike normal
cells, a large percentage of cancer cells lack the ability to generate an
innate immune response against invaders such as viruses. This has led cancer
researchers to explore the use of viruses to combat a variety of cancers.
Using viruses
carries an obvious risk — they can introduce potentially dangerous infections.
To get around this problem, scientists, including van den Pol, have
experimented with creating or testing chimeric viruses, or a combination of
genes from multiple viruses. They have the ability to target cancer cells
without harming patients.
One of the seven
genes of the Ebola virus that helps it avoid an immune system response also
contributes to its lethality. This intrigued van den Pol.
He and the
study’s first author, Xue Zhang, also of Yale, used a chimeric virus containing
one of gene from the Ebola virus — a glycoprotein with a mucin-line domain
(MLD). In wild-type Ebola virus, the MLD plays a role in hiding Ebola from the
immune system. They injected this chimeric virus into the brains of mice with
glioblastoma — and found that the MLD helped selectively target and kill deadly
glioblastoma brain tumors.
(The team worked
with the MLD glycoprotein, not with the full Ebola virus.)
Van den Pol said
MLD’s beneficial effect appears to be that it protects normal cells from
infection — but not cancer cells, which lack the ability to mount an immune
response to pathogens.
A key factor may
be that the virus with the glycoprotein MLD replicates less rapidly,
potentially making it safer than viruses without the MLD part of the
glycoprotein, he said.
In theory, such
a virus might be used in conjunction with surgery to eliminate glioblastoma
tumors and help prevent a recurrence of cancer, he said.
Journal article: https://jvi.asm.org/content/early/2020/02/06/JVI.01967-19
Source: https://myfusimotors.com/2020/02/17/scientists-find-ally-in-fight-against-brain-tumors-ebola/
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