HOUSTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A genetically engineered virus hunts down brain cancer cells, then causes those cells to "devour" themselves, says a new study.
Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center said that a genetically modified adenovirus went after malignant glioma cells in mice and prompted enough "self-cannibalization" among the cancer cells to reduce tumor size and extend survival.
"This virus uses telomerase, an enzyme found in 80 percent of brain tumors, as a target," said lead author Seiji Kondo, associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at M. D. Anderson. "Once the virus enters the cell, it needs telomerase to replicate. Normal brain tissue does not have telomerase, so this virus replicates only in cancer cells," he said.
The virus behaves the same way in lab experiments in other cancers that are telomerase-positive, including human prostate and human cervical cancer cells, the research team said.
In their study, the researchers noted that tumor volume among mice that were treated with the cancer-hunting virus -- dubbed hTERT-Ad -- averaged 39 cubic millimeters, compared with an average tumor size of 200 cubic millimeters in the mice treated with another, non-replicating virus.
The team also saw that the animals receiving hTERT-Ad lived an average of 53 days, while mice in the control group survived 29 days on average.
Two of the hTERT-Ad-treated mice survived 60 days and had no detectable brain tumors, the researchers said.
The findings appear in this week's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
