New Study Reveals Zika Virus Can Treat Brain Tumors – Xinhua

BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) – Recent outbreaks of Zika in the Americas have triggered a global health emergency, but Chinese and US researchers have made another discovery: a vaccine against the Zika virus they've developed can inhibit the growth of brain tumors.

ScienceNet.cn reported the new study that had previously been published by MBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

According to the report, Qin Chengfeng of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences of China, Man Jianghong of the National Center for Biomedical Analysis in China and Shi Peiyong of the University of Texas, conducted the joint study.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and malignant form of primary brain tumor. Treatment with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy has a limited effect and the recurrence rate is close to 100%. The average survival time of patients is about 14 months.

Previous studies have shown that GBM stem cells play a key role in the development and recurrence of deadly brain disease.

In 2017, researchers from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences of China and the University of Texas discovered that the Zika virus could infect and kill neural precursor cells and neural stem cells. And then, they developed a live attenuated Zika virus vaccine genetically modified (ZIKV-LAV).

They hypothesized that the Zika virus could also kill GBM stem cells, which have similar properties to neural stem cells.

Researchers injected ZIKV-LAV into mice without causing abnormal behavior or damage to the brain and other organs, indicating that the vaccine was safe.

Then, they found that tumor size was significantly reduced and that GBM stem cells were infected and killed in the brains of mice. Healthy cells were not damaged.

After further genetic analysis, the researchers discovered the mechanism of action of Zika virus: The viral infection triggered a strong antiviral response, which caused inflammation that killed GBM stem cells.

In experiments, the Zika virus also prolonged the survival time of the mice.

The Zika virus is spread mainly through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. A pregnant woman can pass it on to her baby.

According to the researchers, the study proposes a new treatment for brain tumors and plans to work with clinicians to test the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in patients.