Altered HIV Attacks Mice Tumors

[bemildred]

Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles have tweaked HIV to create a gene therapy that attacks cancer tumors in mice.

The research is a step forward for the beleaguered field of gene therapy, which has enjoyed isolated successes and suffered repeated setbacks over the past 20 years. But tinkering and fine tuning will be the key to a successful gene therapy, UCLA researchers believe. They published their study in the Feb. 13 issue of Nature Medicine.

The UCLA AIDS Institute scientists genetically altered HIV and folded it into an envelope made of another virus called sindbis, which typically infects insects and birds. That turned the altered HIV into a missile that hunted down metastasized melanoma cells in the lungs of living mice.

"People might wonder if it's scary to use HIV as a therapy," said Irving Chen, who led the UCLA team. "But in actuality we have completely removed 80 percent of the virus. So really it's just a carrier."

Wired

[Spinzonner]

1. That's comforting

What else can it carry ...

[ArchTeryx]

2. I'm a virology grad student...

And I've seen these sorts of experiments for a while. In fact, one of the most common tools of my trade in plant virology are what are called 'disarmed' viruses, viruses modified to carry certain test genes, and with virulence genes -- or even genes vital to the most basic viral function, replication -- taken out.


Is it possible to make viruses MORE virulent? Unfortunately, yes. That's what we have biowarfare divisions for :tinfoilhat:. But in general, it's much easier to disarm a virus then to make it nastier.


The real trouble is that cancer cells are bloody adaptable. All it takes is one cancer cell surviving and becoming resistant to the virus, and you've just blown away a decade of research :argh:. It also is not easy to target viruses very specifically to the cells you want them to go kill, unless the viruses go after those cells naturally anyway. Still, I'm rooting for them, because being able to do this with HIV demonstrates how far we've come in understanding how this virus works.