Release date: 2017-09-11 Zika virus is notorious for its serious damage to the brain of newborns, but unexpectedly, it may become a powerful weapon against a deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma. New research from the University of Washington School of Medicine and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, shows that the virus kills brain cancer stem cells that are most resistant to standard treatment. The study was published in the September 5 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine. In the United States, approximately 12,000 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year, which is the most common type of brain cancer. Standard treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation – but most tumors will recur within six months. A small number of cells, called glioblastoma stem cells, usually survive the treatment and continue to divide, producing new tumor cells to replace cells killed by anticancer drugs. Zika virus kills cancer stem cells Previous studies have found that Zika virus can inhibit the growth of stem cells in the brain and prevent them from differentiating into nerve cells. Postdoctoral researcher Zhe Zhu, in collaboration with co-senior authors, Dr. Diamond of the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Milan G. Chheda, and Dr. Jeremy N. Rich of the University of San Diego, tested whether the virus kills the gel that is removed by the patient during diagnosis. Stem cells in blastoma. They infected the tumor with Zika virus and found that the virus spreads in the tumor, infects and kills the cancer stem cells, but avoids most other tumor cells. This means that Zika virus infection and chemotherapy treatment have complementary effects. Standard treatment kills most tumor cells, but usually leaves stem cells. Although Zika virus bypasses most of the tumor cells, it can attack stem cells. Stem cells (left) die after being infected with Zika virus (right). Image Source: The Journal of Experimental Medicine Zika virus treatment of mouse brain cancer To find out if the virus could treat cancer in living animals, the researchers injected Zika virus or placebo into brain tumors from 18 and 15 mice, respectively. Two weeks after the injection, the tumors in the zika-treated mice were significantly smaller, and the survival time of these mice was significantly longer than that of the placebo group. If the Zika virus is used in the human body, it must be injected into the brain, which is most likely during the surgical removal of the primary tumor. If the body enters the body through other parts of the body, the body's immune system removes the virus before it reaches the brain. The idea of ​​injecting a notorious virus that causes brain damage to treat brain cancer seems to be worrying. However, Zika virus is safer to use in adults because its main neural stem cells are rare in adult brains. However, there are many such cells in the brain of the fetus, which is why Zika virus infection causes extensive and serious brain damage before birth, and infection can only cause mild symptoms in adulthood. The researchers used the brain tissue of patients with epilepsy to conduct additional research on the virus and showed that the virus does not infect non-cancerous brain cells. In addition, to ensure its safety, the researchers introduced two mutations that weakened the ability of the virus to fight immune cells. In theory, mutant viruses can still grow in tumor cells - because the tumor virus defense system is weak. However, in healthy cells with strong antiviral responses, the mutant Zika virus can be cleared quickly. When the researchers tested the mutant strain and the original parent strain in glioblastoma stem cells, they found that the original strain was more effective, but the mutant also successfully killed the cancer cells. Researchers hope to introduce more mutations to make the virus more sensitive to non-specific immunity to prevent the spread of infection. Source: Bio-Exploration Neonatal Phototherapy Eye Mask Neonatal Phototherapy Eye Mask,Phototherapy Eye Mask,Baby Eye Therapy Mask,Newborn Eye Mask Wenzhou Celecare Medical Instruments Co.,Ltd , https://www.wzcelecare.com