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Glioblastoma is the most deadly type of brain tumor as it grows and spreads rapidly, killing 15,000 adults in the United States each year. Cancer also has a high recurrence rate that makes long-term survival slim.
Treatments include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy to help kill cancer, but they often fail to eradicate glioblastoma stem cells (GSC), a cell subpopulation that lives in nearby brain tissue, increasing the risk of cancer. recidivism.
In an effort to reduce recurrence and prolong survival, researchers have developed a live attenuated Zika virus vaccine (ZIKV-LAV) to target and kill brain tissue (CSS).
They published in the journal their study titled "Treatment of human glioblastoma with a candidate for live attenuated Zika virus vaccine". mbio.
In previous work, the international team of researchers observed that Zika was not effective at killing healthy cells, but had actually killed cells in a mouse model and in a laboratory dish.
"If we could find a way to specifically target the CSS that are the source of the recurrence, this could provide an option to prevent recurrence or even a cure," said Cheng-feng Qin, a virologist from the Academy. Chinese military medical sciences. .
To test this, the researchers first injected ZIKV-LAV into a group of mice to observe health effects and found no relationship to weight, abnormalities, or abnormality. motor function. They then injected a combination of CSG from humans and ZIKV-LAV into the brain of a group of mice; a second group of mice received only human CGS, but did not receive ZIKV-LAV.
Prolonged survival was demonstrated in mice with ZIKV-LAV infection (50 days), whereas in mice it did not show a similar result (30 days). Tumors increased rapidly in mice without ZIKV-LAV, while the treated group showed a significant delay in tumor growth.
The researchers also identified how the virus was able to kill CSGs with such efficiency by sequencing RNA messages shown in two cell populations in mice treated and untreated with ZIKV-LAV. Triggered by an antiviral response of ZIKV-LAV, inflammation and cell death were induced in the treated cells.
"As a virologist, I see we have to take advantage of the" bad "side of the virus," said Shi. "They should have a role to play in the treatment of cancer."
To make ZIKV-LAV a more potent CGC killer, the team plans to modify it with an immunomodulator, which allows the immune system to function properly, resulting in an immune system able to fight off the remaining cells after being alerted and activated by the immunomodulator.
The safety of ZIKV-LAV and its effectiveness in killing CSGs suggest that it may be an additional candidate for treatment, noted the researchers in their article.
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