Zika virus kills brain cancer cells

Tests on mice with brain cancer showed that the small-headed Zika virus caused atrophy of the tumor and increased life expectancy after two weeks.

Although dangerous to pregnant women and causing minor headaches in the fetus, Zika virus is thought to be capable of killing glioblastoma cells, dangerous and difficult to treat brain cancer.

Glioblastoma brain cancer cells.(Photo: Sherbrooke connectivity imaging lab / Science photo library).

In the Journal of Experimental Medicine, a team of scientists from the University of California (USA) reported testing two Zika virus strains on glioblastoma stem cells . This is the type of cell that produces new cancer cells and is resistant to conventional treatments. Scientists found that Zika virus killed stem cells while leaving other cells intact. For mice with brain cancer, Zika virus causes tumors to shrink after two weeks, while helping to increase life expectancy compared to placebo injections.

From the above results, the authors expect Zika virus to be used as an additional treatment for glioblastoma patients. In fact, chemotherapy and radiation scans the majority of cancer cells but cannot glioblastoma stem cells, making the risk of recurrence very high. If Zika virus is combined to destroy glioblastoma stem cells, patients are more likely to recover instead of facing the risk of death in the current year.

In the near future, the group of scientists will continue to study the genetic modification of Zika virus to make it safer to test on humans. Although the idea of ​​injecting brain-borne virus into the brain sounds crazy, they still believe that this method is safe for adults because the mature brain is no longer attacked by Zika cells.