Science / Medicine : Virus Kills Off Brain Tumor Cells

Massachusetts researchers have shown that a genetically engineered virus can kill human brain tumor cells grown in test tubes and in mice. The findings open the door to a new approach to cancer therapy.

Researchers from the Harvard Medical School reported in Science magazine that they used a herpes virus from which they removed the gene for a protein that is required for the virus to replicate and infect cells. The protein is produced in cancer cells, but not in healthy cells, so the virus can reproduce only in the tumor. That reproduction kills the cells.

The researchers were studying glioblastomas, which represent 29% of all brain tumors in the United States, or roughly 5,000 new cases per year. No effective therapy for glioblastomas currently exists, and the researchers hope that the virus might eventually provide the first way to attack the disease in humans.