This is probably the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time. Described by experts as “revolutionary”, a virus known as Vaxinia, genetically engineered to infect and replicate in cancer cells without damaging healthy cells has been injected into the first patient. The virus that increases the body’s immune response to the disease will hopefully help tackle advanced solid tumour cancers as well.
Created by researchers at the City of Hope National Medical Center in California, the CF33-hNIS virus, also called Vaxinia is an oncolytic virus that the team of medical researchers found successfully kills cancer cells in initial trials in preclinical laboratory and animal models. Notably, City of Hope is the first in the world to test CF33-hNIS in people with metastatic solid tumors.
In animal tests, Vaxinia was found to reduce the size of lung, colon, breast, ovarian, and pancreatic tumours. Lung and breast cancer are two the of the most common cancers alongside prostate and bowel cancer.
An oncolytic virus is used in a type of treatment known as oncolytic virus therapy that targets and infects tumour cells. Oncolytic virus therapy is where a natural virus is genetically modified to enter cancer cells and replicate itself, thus killing them. Crucially, it’s designed to do this while avoiding healthy cells.
The treatment can also help prime peoples’ immune systems against cancer, according to Australian-based biotech company Imugene Limited, a clinical cancer research company and co-developers of the clinical trial along with the City of Hope cancer research and care center in Los Angeles and .
The City of Hope initially used chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies to cure patients of cancer, but it is not going to cut it fully.
Researchers have known about the potential for oncolytic viruses in cancer treatment for decades, but until recently have not been able to effectively harness them. The breakthrough came when scientists began altering the approach to exploiting the virus.
How this experimental virus works to kill cancer
CF33-hNIS enters cells and replicates. In the end, the infected cell bursts and releases thousands of new virus particles that act as antigens. This stimulates the immune system to attack nearby cancer cells.
Previous research in animals has shown that the drug can harness the immune system to hunt and destroy cancer cells. However, until now no human trials had been conducted.
“We believe CF33-hNIS has the potential to improve outcomes for our patients.”
It is planned to continue testing in other human patients and to unlock that potential, CF33-hNIS has to be shown to be safe for people. That is why the first phase of the trial will focus on the safety and tolerability of the drug.
Phase 1
This first phase of testing is expected to have 100 participants in total. Each of whom will be an adult patient with metastatic or advanced solid tumors who has been previously treated with at least two lines of standard treatment.
These patients will receive low doses of the experimental treatment by direct or intravenous injection. If the first results are satisfactory and CF33-hNIS is considered safe, other tests will be done to see how the drug is combined with pembrolizumaban antibody treatment already used in cancer immunotherapy.
The Differentiator
One of the areas where Vaxinia differs from other immunotherapies is its ability to prime the patient’s immune system and increase the level of a protein known as PD-L1 in tumours; this makes the immunotherapy more effective.
In contrast, other immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors can cause patients to relapse even after the cancer has been successfully treated.
Vaxinia launches a two-pronged attack against cancer cells. It not only infects and harms cancer cells, but also forces these cells to become more recognizable to the immune system.
Using the body’s natural immune system to fight cancer cells is the holy grail of cancer treatment research, and is known as immunotherapy. Vaxinia falls under this category, while also increasing the efficacy of other immunotherapy treatments.
“Now is the time to further enhance the power of immunotherapy, and we believe CF33-hNIS has the potential to improve outcomes for our patients in their battle with cancer,” adds lead study investigator Daneng Li in a statement.
There is no downright cure for cancer as yet, but there is a thing called chemotherapy that aims to kill cancer cells in the body through radiation. This invariably results in hair loss
A medical wearable from Luminate Medical helps in avoiding hair loss for the cancer patients that undergo the therapy.
Blood transfusion is also something that doctors do to prevent blood loss through cancer operations.
Cancer is a disease that has been around for ages and most go undetected as they manifest on cells that remain unseen by the naked eye. Without detectable symptoms in some cases. Now, there is hope for everyone, and it rests on a drug that aims to kill cancer cells using a virus that is still in an early experimental phase. Here’s praying we are on the threshold of a breakthrough that can have a huge impact on countless lives.
Derek J. Wheeler 