Cancer Treatment: New Therapy Use Modified Viruses To Attack Tumor Cells Only

The scientists at the IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute and at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) discovered a potential cancer treatment. They formed a new scheme to obtain genetically modified viruses to attack tumor cells without harming healthy tissues.

The study is a part of Eneko Villanueva's work for his PhD. It is co-lead by Cristina Fillat, head of the Gene Therapy and Cancer Group at IDIBAPS, and Raúl Méndez, ICREA researcher at IRB Barcelona.

According to Science Daily, a traditional method of cancer treatment may induce unwanted side effects since it injures healthy cells. Fortunately, one of the new techniques in cancer treatment involved the use of improved oncolytic viruses. These are modified microorganisms to harm only the tumor cells.

There are many previous studies, which maximized the anticancer effects of viruses through genetic engineering. However, the toxicity level of these microorganisms rises as their potency increases. The newly discovered cancer treatment will limit the undesirable impact on healthy cells.

According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers developed a fresh technique in providing highly specific adenovirus for cancer treatment. "We have taken advantage of the different expression of a type of protein, CPEBs, in normal and tumor tissues," Raul Mendez from IRB Barcelona explained.

CPEB, is a family of four RNA-binding proteins that regulate the expression of hundreds of genes and repair of tissues under normal conditions. Its two forms, CPEB4 and CPEB1 have important roles in the development of cancer treatment.

The CPEB4 is highly expressed in cancer cells and essential in the formation of tumors as shown in past studies. On the other hand, CPEB1 is manifested in normal tissue and absent in cancer cells.

An imbalance CPEBs will alter the expression of the genes in cells and could also lead to the advancement of pathological processes such as cancer. The scientists took benefit of the imbalance to generate a virus for cancer treatment. The therapy affects only cells with high levels of CPEB4 and low CPEB1. This means that the microorganism selectively attacks tumor cells but disregarding the healthy tissues Mendez said.