Scientists “tame” herpes virus to fight one of the most dangerous types of cancer

Instead of focusing on the treatment of annoying symptoms of the virus, a team of researchers from the University of South California worked to genetically strengthen it in order to convert it from the enemy into an ally against one of the most dangerous types of tumors: melanoma treatment.

The University of South California leads this revolutionary transformation, developing experimental treatment with the symbolic name RP1, a genetically modified version of herpes virus, which is specially designed to attack cancer cells. What does this treatment are a unique mechanism of its double work: it is not only satisfied with the invasion and destruction of cancer cells from the inside, but also works on stimulating the patient’s immune system to detect tumors and eliminate them more efficiently.

The initial results show that this new approach achieves impressive results. The clinical test, which included 140 patients with advanced cases of melanoma, who did not respond to traditional methods of treatment, the researchers noted that about a third of the participants became witnesses of obvious shrinkage in tumors at least 30%, while the tumors completely disappeared in 16% of patients.

The most interesting is that this answer included even tumors that were not introduced directly by treatment, which indicates its ability to stimulate an integrated immune response in the body.

Behind this scientific achievement are years of difficult studies. The idea of ​​using viruses to combat cancer is not new, since its first mention comes from the beginning of the twentieth century. But real progress has been achieved only recently thanks to the revolution in genetic engineering methods, which allowed scientists to accurately amend viruses to become safer and more effective.

The Herpes virus was chosen specifically for several reasons that make him an ideal candidate for this role. This is a relatively large size, which is easy to generate, and its nuclear acid does not merge with the cells of the body of the host, which reduces the risk of a genetic MUT.

This new treatment developed by Rebomeon Biotechnology is the second generation of cancer viral products. This is not just a reduced version of the source virus, but rather subjected to a number of accurate genetic adjustments that increase its ability to aim on cancer cells, while activating the immune system. These amendments make it safer and more efficiently than a natural virus twice as much.

As for the mechanism of work, treatment is transmitted to the patient by injection directly into the surface tumors, while it can be inserted into deep tumors using an elongated photograph.

Patients receive treatment every two weeks for four months in combination with the immune “Nifolomab”. Those patients who respond to treatment continue to take “non -zero” alone for two years.

What is optimistic is that the side effects of treatment were mainly mild, limited symptoms of influenza or general fatigue, which are easily controlled by traditional chemicals.

Dr. Gino, a professor of medicine at the University of South California, confirms that this treatment is a new hope for patients who have exhausted all available therapeutic options. About half of the advanced patients with melanoma do not respond to current immune treatment, and their average survival does not exceed several years in cases of treatment.

The hopes of researchers are not limited to the treatment of melanoma, but at present treatment is checked on other types of cancer, since the doctor and his team have begun clinical experience from the third stage to study the effect of this treatment on more than 400 patients with cancer.

If the ongoing clinical experience proves their success, we can be on the verge of a new era in the treatment of tumors, since some of the most alarming viruses turn into people into its strongest allies in his struggle with the disease.

The results of the experiment were published on Tuesday in the journal of clinical oncology and recently been presented at the annual assembly of the American Association of Clinical Oncology.

Source: New York Post