The Food and Drug Administration has given "breakthrough"
status to a treatment that uses the once-feared polio virus to target
aggressive forms of brain cancer, in the hope of speeding it to market.
The therapy, developed at Duke University, hopes to
use the virus’ debilitating properties to help fight cancer instead of
harming its host. The experimental treatment was the brainchild of molecular biologist
Matthias Gromeier. By removing a certain genetic sequence and replacing
it with material from the common cold virus, the polio would not be able
to cause the incapacitating symptoms.
The altered version of polio could still reproduce in cancer
cells, therefore making the cancer susceptible to Lipscomb’s and other
patients’ immune systems.
“All human cancers develop a shield of protective
measures that make them invisible to this immune system,” “By infecting the tumor, we are actually removing this protective
shield and enabling the immune system to attack."
No comments:
Post a Comment