Experiment shows Covid virus can shrink tumors of 4 types of late-stage cancer

New research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation has revealed a surprising potential benefit of the Covid virus: It may help shrink cancer tumors.

This surprising discovery, based on experiments conducted on mice, sheds light on the complex interactions between the immune system, pathogens and cancer cells. It is expected to pave the way for new effective cancer treatments in humans.

But before the research moves to clinical trials, scientists warn against infecting yourself with Covid, as the virus can cause serious illness. Doctors will need to design a safe treatment protocol, which could use benign viruses or an mRNA vaccine based on the tumor-shrinking ability of the Covid virus .

Covid virus can help shrink cancer tumors. (Illustration photo).

An immunotherapy

The new research is part of an emerging but promising field of cancer treatment called immunotherapy, in which scientists use a person's own immune system, rather than drugs or chemotherapy, and use external radiation to kill cancer cells.

They realized that the human immune system has a group of cells called monocytes . These immune cells play an important role in protecting the body against infections and other threats such as bacteria and viruses.

However, in cancer patients, monocytes can sometimes be hijacked by tumor cells and converted into 'cancer-friendly' cells . They then turn to protect the tumor instead of attacking it.

What the researchers found was that Covid infection causes the body to produce a special type of monocytes that have unique anti-cancer properties. These 'specialist' monocytes are specially trained to target viruses, but they also have the ability to fight cancer cells.

To understand how this works, we need to look at the genetic material of the virus that causes Covid. The researchers found that the monocytes they created have a special receptor that binds well to a specific sequence on the RNA of the Covid virus .

' If monocytes are the lock and Covid RNA is the key, then Covid RNA is the perfect match,' explains Ankit Bharat, one of the study's co-authors from Northwestern University in Chicago. And it could also be the key to a cancer treatment.

Covid infection causes the body to produce a special type of monocytes. (Illustration photo).

Effective in shrinking 4 types of late-stage cancer tumors

To test their hypothesis, the team conducted experiments on mice with four common cancers that had progressed to stage 4, which is the final stage, including melanoma, lung cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.

Mice were given a drug that mimics the immune response to severe Covid infection, stimulating the production of specialized monocytes. The results were striking. Tumors in the mice began to shrink in all four types of cancer studied.

Unlike normal monocytes, which can be converted by tumors into protective cells, specialized monocytes retain their original anti-cancer properties as they were when they were born.

Specialized monocytes can migrate to tumor sites—a feat most immune cells cannot accomplish—and once there, they trigger a natural killer response, just as the immune system does with any pathogen.

Other cells in the immune system then attack the cancer cells, causing the tumors to shrink.

Tumors in mice began to shrink in all four types of cancer studied. (Illustration photo).

This mechanism is particularly exciting because it opens up a new approach to fighting cancer that does not rely on T cells , which are the focus of many current immunotherapy treatments.

Although immunotherapy has shown promise, it is effective in only about 20% to 40% of cases, and often fails when the body cannot produce enough active T cells.

Indeed, it is believed that the reliance on T cell immunity is a major limitation of current immunotherapeutic approaches.

In contrast, the novel mechanism using monocytes provides a selective , T-cell-independent approach to tumor killing, potentially providing a solution for patients who do not respond to traditional immunotherapy.

It's important to note that this study was conducted in mice, and clinical trials are needed to determine whether the same effects would translate to humans.

Perhaps some aspects of this mechanism could work in humans and help fight other types of cancer, since it disrupts the common pathway that most cancer cells use to spread throughout the body.

While Covid vaccines are unlikely to trigger this mechanism (since they don't use the entire RNA sequence like viruses), the research opens up the possibility of developing new drugs and vaccines that could stimulate the production of cancer-fighting monocytes.

Monocytes help shrink lung cancer tumors.

Not just for cancer treatment, new immunotherapy has potential for many other diseases

The implications of this research go beyond Covid and cancer. It shows that our immune systems can be trained by one type of threat to become more effective against another. 

This concept, called 'trained immunity,' is an exciting area of ​​research that could lead to new approaches to treating a variety of diseases.

However, it is important to stress again that this does not mean that people should be infected with Covid as a way to fight cancer, and this is extremely dangerous. Severe Covid can be life-threatening and cause serious long-term health consequences.

We should just know that this research is providing important insights that could help develop safer, more targeted cancer treatments in the future. As we continue to grapple with the consequences of the Covid pandemic, new infections and long Covid, studies like this remind us of the importance of basic scientific research.

Even in the face of a global health crisis, researchers are finding ways to advance our understanding of human biology and disease. This work not only helps us fight the immediate threat of Covid, but also paves the way for breakthroughs in treating other serious conditions like cancer.

While there is still much work to be done before these findings can be translated into treatments for patients, this research represents an exciting step forward in our understanding of the complex relationship between viruses, the immune system and cancer.

It offers hope for new treatments, and highlights unexpected discoveries that could lead to a method of fighting fire with fire. As the old saying goes, there is always opportunity in danger, and in the Covid pandemic, scientists are finding new opportunities.