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Academic Journal
Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology; Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 26 Feb 2013 – 3:00 PST
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A modified Newcastle disease virus that targets and kills all types of prostate cancer cells and leaves normal cells untouched shows
promise as a cancer treatment that avoids the side effects which normally accompany hormonal treatment and chemotherapies, says a team of veterinary scientists in the US.
Corresponding author Subbiah Elankumaran, an Associate Professor of Virology, at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and colleagues, are due to report their findings in an April edition of the Journal of Virology; a pre-print issue of which was released online on 25 January.
Oncolytic Viruses
Researchers first became interested in the treatment potential of oncolytic viruses nearly two decades ago. These viruses target and kill tumor
cells while leaving normal healthy cells intact.
“Onco” means cancer, and “lytic” means to burst open, which describes the effect that oncolytic viruses have on targeted cells. Once the virus
gains entry to the host cancer cell it hijacks the cell machinery so it mistakenly copies the viral acids instead of its own nucleic acids.
Eventually the cell becomes so full of virus copies that it bursts, releasing its surrogate progeny to infect other host
Read more at: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/256871.php
