Common virus 'kills cancer'


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WASHINGTON - A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, US researchers said. The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population. "Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known i will effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Craig Meyers, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania. "We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent," Meyers said in a statement. He said at a meeting of the American Society for Virology that studies have shown women infected with AAV-2 who are also infected with a cancer-causing wart virus called HPV develop cervical cancer less frequently than uninfected women do.

AAV-2 is a small virus that cannot replicate itself without the help of another virus. But with the help of a second virus it kills cells. For their study, Meyers and colleagues first infected a batch of human cells with HPV, some strains of which cause cervical cancer. They then infected these cells and normal cells with AAV-2. After six days, all the HPV-infected cells died. The same thing happened with cervical, breast, prostate and squamous cell tumor cells. All are cancers of the epithelial cells, which include skin cells and other cells that line the insides and outsides of organs. "One of the most compelling findings is that AAV-2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," Meyers said. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer." AAV-2 is being studied intensively as a gene therapy vector -- a virus modified to carry disease-correcting genes into the body. Gene therapy researchers favor it because it does not seem to cause disease or immune system reaction on its own.

reuters

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I've heard of this before, not with a virus, but by training your own immune system to recognise and destroy cancel cells.

At the rate that things are going, it looks like it wont be long untill a complete cancer cure is available.

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It might end up helping someone after about 10 yrs of research. That is, unless drug Companies find away to bury it in favor of a medication that makes cancer "cronic" meaning a steady stream of income.

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Hmm, once again two wrongs make a right... Virus + Cancer = Cure...

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A virus isn't necessarily bad. A virus is simply a cell that needs a host body to reproduce. In this case, it can only use cancerous cells. :p

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At the rate that things are going, it looks like it wont be long untill a complete cancer cure is available.

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That's what they said back in 1986.

But good luck to them, I hope it works this time.

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Well yah know what they say "fight fire with fire" - let's just hope that the pharmaceutical companies don't kill it like they have with every other cure before it becomes public knowledge...after all 'treating' life threatning illnesses makes them billionares.......curing them doesn't.

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Sounds like a good discovery. :) I hope they'll be able to further their research and make a cure available to people with cancer.

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Recent testing with lab rats showed that HIV can be made to seek out and destroy cancerous cells without infecting the rat.

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That would suck if it failed... And you ended up with cancer and aids.

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