Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/Q4BqJZxSoQg

 

We all view most viruses as “bad guys” as we go through our 3rd year trying to avoid and survive CoVid.  Some viruses known as oncolytic viruses are “good guys” that can turbocharge the immune system to more effectively kill cancer cells that spread and threaten to kill us.  Immunologists at North Carolina’s Wake Forest School of Medicine and the University of Arizona have harnessed these viruses to do just that.

 

The technique uses the rabbit poxvirus myxoma that can selectively infect human cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.  The virus weakens and kills some of the tumor cells directly, but it also puts a target on their heads. 

 

The second part of the treatment involves taking a patient’s own T lymphocytes and sensitizing them to myxoma antigens before reinjecting them.  Once back in the body, these modified T cells hone to the viral-infected cancer cells and break them open by immune-mediated autolysis.

 

This exciting oncolytic viral therapy is now experimental but should be coming soon to the clinic.

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1535610822003579?via%3Dihub#!

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-therapeutic-viruses-turbocharge-immune-cancer.html

 

#oncolyticvirus #myxoma #immunotherapy #car #tcr