‘Common virus kills cancer cells’
Published: June 22, 2005
A common virus that is harmless to humans can destroy cancerous cells and could be developed into a new cancer therapy, researchers said.
The virus - called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2 - infects an estimated 80 per cent of the population.
“Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2 … 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, in the US.
“We believe that AAV-2 recognises 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,” Prof 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, Prof 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 tumour cells.
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21 DAYS TO STOP SMOKING: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY CASSETTE : 21 Days to Stop SmokingAll 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,” Prof 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.”
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