Glioblastomas, a malignant tumor affecting the brain or spine, are currently incurable. Many die each year from the fatal brain cancer. The recurrence is high, meaning that the cancer has a high tendency to return even after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Currently, researchers are naming glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) as the culprit for this recurrence. However, a team of international researchers has made an interesting hypothesis: zika could target these GSCs.
The outbreak of Zika led to the important discovery of microcephaly in newborns. This is because the virus neural progenitor cells in the fetus of infected mothers. The hope was to have the zika virus specifically target the GSCs because they have similar properties to the cells that the zika virus attacks naturally. A study done on mice models showed that the virus could kill GSCs without posing much harm to differentiated normal brain cells.
Then, the team went on to determine if there was a way for the zika virus to be used without damaging the human body. A live attenuated zika vaccine called ZIKV-LAV was created by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch and has shown to fight infection while being harmless to its host. To see if the vaccine could work against GSCs, they inserted both GSCs from humans and the virus into mouse models. Mice that only got the virus developed tumors, while the onset of tumor development in mice that got GSCs and the virus was significantly delayed. This shows promise in the field of oncology. Hopefully, with further research, we could take something that’s bad and turn it into something life-saving.
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- Noah Magbual
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