Targets on the horizon: Emerging therapies and nov...(when it is successfully treated said Ziv...),Health

Date:10/25/2007

when it is successfully treated, said Ziv Gil, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. By modifying a virus that is naturally attracted to nerves, it can serve to target and kill cancer and prevent healthy nerves from being damaged.

In the study, Dr. Gil and his colleagues worked with a genetically engineered herpes simplex virus called NV1023, which had been rendered non-virulent by removing the gene that allows the virus to attack healthy cells. For reasons that are still not entirely clear to researchers, the virus is lethal to cancer cells, despite the fact that it ignores healthy tissue.

The researchers demonstrated that the virus effectively killed cells from three human carcinoma cell lines: pancreatic, head and neck, and prostate cancer. In addition, using a novel animal model, the researchers demonstrated that a single injection of an attenuated (non-virulent) herpes virus can effectively treat nerves infiltrated by cancer, while preserving physiological nerve function. Remarkably, all of the un-treated animals with cancers developed complete nerve paralysis within five weeks, whereas most of the NV1023 treated animals had intact nerve function up to 14 weeks after treatment. Phase I studies of the attenuated virus in humans are underway.

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AR36A36.11.1, a monoclonal antibody targeting CD59, enhances complement activity and exhibits potent in vivo efficacy in multiple human cancer models: Abstract A 70.

Scientists at ARIUS Research, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Toronto, Canada, have discovered a potential therapeutic that foils cancer cells ability to hide from the immune system. According to their findings, the antibody, termed AR36A36.11.1, allows the immune complement system protein complexes that recognize and kill foreign cells to target and kill tumors by rupturing their membranes. AR36A36.11.1 activates complement activity against cancer cells and inhibits tum
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Contact: Greg Lester greg.lester@aacr.org 267-646-0554 American Association for Cancer Research Source:Eurekalert

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