Using HIV as a detective detects cancer

UCLA University (USA) found cancer cells in the living body of mice using the inactivated HIV virus disguised with a new coating. This promises to be a new way of fighting cancer.

P-Glycoprotein causes the cancer to be ineffective

Professor Irvin Chen, a member of the research team, said that transforming HIV into cancer cell detection means is divided into two phases. First, they used an HIV version, in which the factors that caused AIDS were separated. This allows the virus to penetrate into cells and grow throughout the body without causing AIDS. At that time, harmless HIV will become a tool to transport therapeutic agents to selected targets such as the liver, lungs, where cancerous tumors often metastasize.

In the next step, HIV will be removed from the outside surface and replaced by the outer shell of Sindbis virus that often causes illness in birds and insects. Later, the scientists reprogrammed HIV to infect the selected functional cells and attached them to P-glycoprotein - the molecule that locates the surface of most cancer cells.

This is the first project in the world to develop a method to transform HIV into a search engine and bind to P-Glycoprotein.P-Glycoprotein itself is the cause of cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy. They play a role in resolving all drugs and taking out the cancer cells, preventing the therapeutic effect of the drug. Therefore, cancer cells continue to grow without being controlled.

HIV 'detective' was injected into a vein in the rat's tail and monitored with a special optical mini-camera. 'Detective' will follow the blood line to locate at the cancer cell in the lungs, where the tumor spreads. To monitor the journey of HIV, researchers used glowing proteins of fireflies to attach. When the mouse is placed under the camera, glowing cancer cells will be identified through the bone, muscle, and hair.

This method does not cause pain or injury to animals, it proves that it is possible to reprogram a pathogen into a harmless and effective tool, proceeding to bind to special cells as a therapeutic target in the body. The most important thing is to further improve the genetic modification technology on HIV so that the transporter must be very safe and suitable for human gene therapy testing.