Researchers Reform Flu Virus to Inhibit Pancreatic Cancer
Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) are incurable due to the rapid development of resistance to all current therapeutics.
However, since oncolytic adenoviral mutants have recently emerged as a promising new strategy that negates such resistance, scientists at the Queen Mary University in London modified flu virus to block the growth of pancreatic cancer.
“The new virus specifically infects and kills pancreatic cancer cells, causing few side effects in nearby healthy tissue,” said lead author, Dr Stella Man, from Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University London (QMUL), who described it as “selective and effective”.
“If we manage to confirm these results in human clinical trials, then this may become a promising new treatment for pancreatic cancer patients, and could be combined with existing chemotherapy drugs to kill persevering cancer cells.”
The research team took advantage of a unique feature of pancreatic cancer cells – the presence of a specific molecule called alpha v beta 6 (αvβ6) on the surface. The researchers altered the flu virus in such as way that it would feature an additional small protein on its outer coat.
This extra protein recognizes the αvβ6-molecules and attaches to
it. Once bound, the virus enters the cell and starts to multiply. It produces copies of itself prior to bursting out of the cell and thereby destroying it in the process. The newly released viral copies can then bind onto neighboring cancer cells and repeat the same cycle, eventually removing the tumor mass altogether.The team used mice that had human pancreatic cells grafted onto them and a version of the influenza virus that had been tweaked to react to one of the unique markers of pancreatic cancer. The researchers say their new technique has produced the most selective viral cancer therapy seen to date, which allows it to be safely injected to spread around the body.
Maggie Blanks, CEO of the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, which partly funded this research, said it was exciting to see the work coming to fruition “with such positive results”.
She said: “Developing more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer becomes more urgent every year as the incidence of the disease increases, and we hope to see this research progressed further.”
The team are currently seeking funding to move to clinical trials in humans in the next two years.
