Genetic Engineering: virus kills cancer

[arcticpenguin]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030507080912.htm

A virus has been engineered to kill cells of a rare brain tumor. It works in mice, human trials may be coming soon.

Could a few successes like this alleviate fears of genetic tinkering?

 

[Mark]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030507080912.htm

A virus has been engineered to kill cells of a rare brain tumor. It works in mice, human trials may be coming soon.

Could a few successes like this alleviate fears of genetic tinkering?

Maybe. On the other hand, when my late wife was battling cancer, they came up with a gene therapy that was 100% (literally) effective in mice at eliminating the disease completely. In human trials it extended lives an average of...a few weeks at best. But at least they are still trying; I have great admiration for these researchers.

 

[spoonhandler]

This is promising stuff. The first version I heard about for treatment of glioma looked at using the herpes simplex virus (this work is ongoing - see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12595888&dopt=Abstract for abstract). The thought of being able to use a pathogen to our advantage in this way is exciting. I see this group went for good ol' adenovirus. I hope it works out - glioma is a nasty one and hopefully the technique may be more widely applied, although I notice glioma is said not to metastasise, making the viral approach more effective. And, as Mark points out, there's also the problem of what works in mice not being effective in humans, particularly where immune system responses are involved.

 

[EdipisReks]

i personally believe that this kind of virus research is a dead end. biological solutions have limited success rates due to the many variables that are inherent with biological systems. nano is gonna be where it's gonna be at.