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Researchers Create Viruses to Selectively Attack Tumor Cells
Scientists at the IDIBAPS Biomedical Research Institute and at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have designed a new strategy to get genetically modified viruses to selectively attack tumor cells without affecting healthy tissues according to a new study.
Conventional cancer treatment may cause undesirable side effects as a result of poor selectivity. To avoid them it is important that new therapies can efficiently remove cancer cells and preserve the healthy ones. One of the new approaches in cancer therapy is based on the development of oncolytic viruses, ie, viruses modified to only infect tumor cells.
An innovative and specific approach
In the study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from IDIBAPS and IRB Barcelona have developed an innovative approach to provide adenovirus with high specificity against tumor cells. “We have taken advantage of the different expression of a type of protein, CPEBs, in normal and tumor tissues”, explains Raúl Méndez from IRB Barcelona.
CPEB is a family of four RNA binding proteins (the molecules that carry information from genes to synthesize proteins) that control the expression of hundreds of genes and maintain the functionality and the ability to repair tissues under normal conditions. When CPEBs become imbalanced, they change the expression of these genes in cells and contribute to the development of pathological processes such as cancer. “
The image shows tumour cells infected by the virus, which expresses a fluorescent protein. Over the days (1, 3, 5), the virus multiplies, generating new virions that infect more cancer cells.
The oncoselective viruses created in this study were very sophisticated, being activated by CPEB4 but repressed by CPEB1. Thus, researchers achieved attenuated viral activity in normal cells, while in tumor cells the virus potency was maintained or even increased. “When the modified viruses entered into tumor cells they replicated their genome and, when going out, they destroyed the cell and released more particles of the virus with the potential to infect more cancer cells,” says Fillat. She adds that, “this new approach is very interesting since it is a therapy selectively amplified in the tumor”.
Since CPEB4 is overexpressed in several tumors, this oncoselective strategy may be valid for other solid tumors. Researchers are now trying to combine this treatment with therapies that are already being used in clinical practice, or that are in a very advanced stage of development, to find synergies that make them more effective.
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