A modified flu virus could be used to inhibit the growth of pancreatic cancer, British scientists report today.
Dr Gunnel Hallden and colleagues at Queen Mary University of London, UK, looked at ways to avoid the drug resistance that hampers current treatments for the disease. They investigated the use of mutated viruses as a new targeted strategy.
The common flu virus was adapted and used to attack a specific molecule on the surface of pancreatic cancer cells called alpha v beta 6, which is not present on healthy pancreatic cells. Inside the cancer cells, the virus replicates and eventually destroys the cell from inside.
This approach was found to be effective in laboratory tests on mice. Full details appear in today’s (25 January) Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
First author, Dr Stella Man, said: "We’ve shown for the first time that pancreatic cancers can be specifically targeted with a modified version of the common flu virus. The new virus specifically infects and kills pancreatic cancer cells, causing few side effects in nearby healthy tissue.
“Not only is our targeting strategy both selective and effective, but we have now further engineered the virus so that it can be delivered in the blood stream to reach cancer cells that have spread throughout the body.
"If we manage to confirm these results in human clinical trials, then this may become a promising new treatment for pancreatic cancer patients, and could be combined with existing chemotherapy drugs to kill persevering cancer cells."
The work was partly funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund.
Maggie Blanks, charity chief executive, said: "Developing more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer becomes more urgent every year as the incidence of the disease increases, and we hope to see this research progressed further."
Man, Y. K. et al. The novel oncolytic adenoviral mutant Ad5-3A-A20T retargeted to avBeta6-integrins efficiently eliminates pancreatic cancer cells. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 25 January 2018.
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