A cancer researcher has proven that a common virus can infect and kill breast cancer stem cells.
“Cancer stem cells are essentially mother cells,” explains Dr. Lee, study author. “They continuously produce new cancer cells, aggressively forming tumors even when there are only a few of them.”
Cancer stem cells are difficult to kill as they respond poorly to conventional cancer treatment. As Dr. Lee notes, “You can kill all the regular cancer cells in a tumor, but as long as there are cancer stem cells present, disease will recur.”
Dr. Lee is optimistic that his research team has found the key to destroying cancer stem cells. The researchers have recently shown that the common human reovirus effectively targets and kills cancer stem cells in breast cancer tissue.
The reovirus is a naturally occurring virus that is believed to cause mild infections of the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract of humans.
“We suspected that reovirus might be effective against cancer stem cells, because we have shown time and again how well it destroys regular cancer cells,” remarks Dr. Lee, who was the first in the world to discover that the virus could selectively infect and kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
Unlike most cancer studies, which use cancer cell lines developed for laboratory use, this study used fresh breast cancer tissue.
In addition to its ability to kill cancer cells and cancer stem cells, reovirus stimulates the anti-cancer immune system. Since virus therapy also invokes an anti-virus response, the researchers are working on a way to harness the immune system so it attacks cancer cells while allowing the virus to freely infect and destroy cancerous cells. “Refining this two-pronged approach to killing cancer is our next step,” says Dr. Lee. “We are taking advantage of the natural characteristics of reovirus and the immune system itself to create a powerful virus-based anti-cancer therapy.”
References:
1. Patrick Lee, et al. Dalhousie University.
2. Image by AJC1.
