Viruses Kill Cancer Cells in Lab Tests

Researchers at St. Louis University are working on a new way to kill tumors using genetically engineered viruses that replicate in cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

“These engineered viruses kill cancer cells through a mechanism that is completely different from chemotherapy or radiation” and that is potentially much safer, said William Wold of the university’s school of medicine.

Wold’s group has been working for years to develop adenoviruses -- viruses similar to those that cause the common cold -- that are able to infect only cancer cells. When the viruses reproduce themselves, they destroy the cells.

The team reports in today’s issue of the journal Cancer Research on two such viruses, INGN 007 and INGN 009.

INGN 009 is able to attack only cells that carry a genetic mutation common in colon cancer.

Wold and his colleagues showed that the virus would invade and kill colon cancer cells grown in a laboratory dish, but not lung cancer cells or healthy tissue.

INGN 007, designed to infect cells containing a mutation common in lung cancer, killed both colon and lung cancer cells in the laboratory.

Both viruses suppressed tumor growth significantly in animals with colon cancer, while INGN 007 completely suppressed tumor growth in a lung cancer animal test.