Experts in the U.K. plan to exploit the Zika virus trying to destroy brain tumor cells in tests that they say can bring about new means to battle against a violent kind of cancer.
The study will aim on glioblastoma, the most ordinary type of brain cancer, which has a 5-year rate of survival with hardly 5%. Zika results in harsh disability in offspring by destroying the growing stem cells in the brain; but in grownups, whose brains are completely developed, it often results in simply gentle symptoms similar to that of flu. In glioblastoma, the cells of cancer are much alike to those in the growing brain, signifying that the virus can be utilized to aim them while sparing usual brain tissue of adult. Scientists say that current treatments have to be offered at low measures to prevent injuring fit tissue.
Experts led at Cambridge University by Harry Bulstrode will employ tumor cells present in the lab on mice to evaluate potential of the Zika virus. The mosquito-borne disease has extended to almost 60 territories and nations in a worldwide epidemic that was initially recognized in 2015 in Brazil. “Zika virus contamination in children and babies is a foremost worldwide health concern, and the aim has been to find out more regarding the virus to discover novel potential cure,” Bulstrode claimed in one of his statements to media. “We are taking a separate approach, and desire to employ these new-fangled insights to check if the virus can be set free in opposition to one of the cancers that are hardest to cure.”
“We expect to demonstrate that the Zika virus can hold back growth of the brain tumor in examinations in the lab,” Bulstrode further added. “If we can take education from Zika’s capability of crossing the barrier of blood-brain and aim stem cells of brain selectively, we might be holding the key to treatments in the future.”
In short, the use of Zika virus against the cancer is a novel idea and we are sure to see it in the near future. For now, we can only wait and watch.