Will Zika cure glioblastoma?
Zika virus can help beat brain cancer
Daria Yeletskaya, Hi-News
A new discovery by scientists in the field of medicine may help in the creation of new methods of treating brain cancer. We are talking about the Zika virus, which spreads along with the bite of mosquitoes. This type of virus is known in the world not for its deadly danger, since cases of death due to this disease have not yet been recorded in the world, but by the impact on the brain of an unborn fetus. The Zika virus is able to penetrate the placenta and cause brain damage in children if a woman is infected during pregnancy. At the same time, in their new study, scientists have identified some features of this virus that can destroy cancer cells in the brain.
How does the Zika virus affect the brain?
Since the Zika virus remains poorly understood and little is known about its effects on the human body, scientists have already identified a link between the disease and the development of the fetal brain. The virus can cause microcephaly in children who were exposed to it in the womb of a sick mother at the stage of embryogenesis. Scientists decided to study the mechanisms of influence on the human brain more thoroughly and conducted a number of studies that showed that the Zika virus penetrates brain cells using a special "key". This discovery led researchers to the idea of reprogramming the virus so that it infects only cancer cells of the brain, leaving healthy cells unchanged.
Some cancers, such as glioblastoma, have aggressive forms, often not amenable to conventional medical treatment, because the disease turns healthy brain cells into stem cells. Their main advantage is the ability to divide indefinitely, while brain cells – neurons stop dividing after just a few repetitions.
According to an article published in the journal Cell.com (Wang et al., Integrin avß5 Internalizes Zika Virus during Neural Stem Cells Infection and Provides a Promising Target for Antiviral Therapy), scientists will need to modify a conventional virus in order to make it the safest for healthy brain cells, using the basic principle of cell destruction only on tumor cells formations.
When the Zika virus enters the body of a pregnant woman, and then into the developing embryo, it slows down the development of the brain, affecting nerve stem cells and delaying their growth. Based on this, scientists conducted a study on mice, during which it turned out that the Zika virus preferentially infects glioblastoma stem cells compared to normal brain cells. Scientists explain this feature by the presence of special receptors – integrins – on the surface of the virus, which they use to bind to the cells of victims.
With just one type of integrin, specialists were able to conduct a detailed study on the vulnerability of glioblastoma to Zika infection. Thanks to this, scientists have confirmed the presence of viral "preferences" for brain tumors.
Using the gene editor – CRISPR, scientists selectively "turned off" certain genes from glioblastoma stem cells, exposing tumor cells to the Zika virus. As a result of the experiment, scientists were able to find a certain gene-a carrier of cellular information, thanks to which the Zika virus could recognize cancer cells. The found gene, which was named avß5, is found in large quantities on nerve stem cells, which are the main targets of the virus.
Based on the research results, scientists can use the "weak" points of aggressive glioblastomas with the help of a genetically modified Zika virus to fight cancer, while maintaining healthy cells. Other deadly viruses can also help in the fight against brain cancer. For example, scientists used a genetically modified poliovirus in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma, while saving the lives of 20% of patients undergoing treatment.
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