Myxomathose virus doodt hersentumoren zonder bijwerkingen blijkt uit dierproeven. 92% van de muizen werd kankervrij na injectie met myxomathose virus.

5 mei 2011: Bron: Pubmed

Via pubmed is een groot samenvattend studierapport in te zien dat een overzicht geeft van het gebruik van virussen en stamcellen (dendritische cellen) bij hersentumoren. Als u het hele studierapport wilt inzien klik dan hier. Bij het volledige studierapport staat een lange referentielisjt van vele studies gedaan met virussen bij met name hersentumoren.

21 november 2005: Bron: London Free Press

Myxomathose virus doodt hersentumorcellen zonder bijwerkingen.

In navolging van het Newcastle virus hebben Engelse en Canadese onderzoekers succesvolle en veelbelovende proeven gedaan met het inbrengen van een ander virus bij muizen met hersentumoren. En met groot succes. Na 130 dagen (volledige studietijd) waren 92% van de muizen (12 uit 13 muizen) ingespoten met de hersentumorcellen in leven en zelfs kankervrij. Het virus liet de gezonde cellen ongemoeid. Het virus dat gebruikt is is de veroorzaker van Myxomathose, een dodelijke ziekte voor konijnen. Opnieuw een bewijs dat het direct injecteren van een virus in de tumor of in de nabijheid van de tumoren zeker de toekomst heeft voor een succesvolle behandeling van kanker. Hier het abstract van deze studie en een artikel uit de London Free Press over deze studie.

Cancer Res. 2005 Nov 1;65(21):9982-90.

Myxoma virus is a novel oncolytic virus with significant antitumor activity against experimental human gliomas.

Lun X, Yang W, Alain T, Shi ZQ, Muzik H, Barrett JW, McFadden G, Bell J, Hamilton MG, Senger DL, Forsyth PA.

Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, and Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Myxoma virus, a poxvirus previously considered rabbit specific, can replicate productively in a variety of human tumor cells in culture. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was efficacy or toxicities of this oncolytic virus against experimental models of human malignant gliomas in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo in malignant glioma specimens. In vitro, the majority of glioma cell lines tested (7 of 8, 87.5%) were fully permissive for myxoma virus replication and killed by infection. In vivo, intracerebral (i.c.) myxoma virus inoculation was well tolerated and produced only minimal focal inflammatory changes at the site of viral inoculation. U87 and U251 orthotopic xenograft models were used to assess myxoma virus efficacy in vivo. A single intratumoral injection of myxoma virus dramatically prolonged median survival compared with treatment with UV-inactivated myxoma virus. Median survival was not reached in myxoma virus-treated groups versus 47.3 days (U87; P = 0.0002) and 50.7 days (U251; P = 0.0027) in UV-inactivated myxoma virus-treated groups. Most myxoma virus-treated animals (12 of 13, 92%) were alive and apparently "cured" when the experiment was finished (>130 days). Interestingly, we found a selective and long-lived myxoma virus infection in gliomas in vivo. This is the first demonstration of the oncolytic activity of myxoma virus in vivo. The nonpathogenic nature of myxoma virus outside of the rabbit host, its capacity to be genetically modified, its ability to produce a long-lived infection in human tumor cells, and the lack of preexisting antibodies in the human population suggest that myxoma virus may be an attractive oncolytic agent against human malignant glioma.

London Free Press

Cure for cancer?
Thu, November 17, 2005

A virus initially used to kill rabbits is found to eradicate human brain tumor cells in mice.

By JOHN MINER, FREE PRESS HEALTH REPORTER

Scientists in London and Calgary have used a rabbit virus to eliminate human brain tumours in mice for the first time, raising the possibility a cure can be developed for the deadly disease. "We're extremely encouraged by the results," said Dr. Grant McFadden, a scientist at the Robarts Research Institute in London. If everything goes perfectly in subsequent tests, trials on people could start in three to four years, he said. McFadden teamed with Dr. Peter Forsyth of the University of Calgary to inject myxoma, a virus used years ago to kill rabbits in Australia, into mice with human gliomas, a brain tumour that hits 2,500 Canadians a year. "It is a living, growing virus that actually grows and kills the cancer cells," McFadden said of the myxoma virus. The researchers found that 92 per cent of the mice treated were alive and apparently cured of the cancer when the experiment was completed after more than 130 days. "I am really thrilled by it. At this point it has worked as well as we could have ever hoped," McFadden said. "In most of the mice the cancer cells are gone by the time we look at them after several weeks," he said. Testing also indicated the rabbit virus only attacked the cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone. "We infected and killed the tumours and all the normal cells were perfectly fine, no problem at all," Forsyth said from Calgary. Their findings are published in this month's edition of the journal Cancer Research. Human gliomas is a particularly lethal type of cancer. "People with the tumour live about 12 months with the best available treatment, which is surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Virtually none of them are cured," said Forsyth, who is a professor of oncology at the University of Calgary. Forsyth said a remarkable discovery in their research was McFadden's key finding that cancer cells lost their ability to fight off viruses while normal cells kept their protection. "When a cancer cell grows and proliferates like crazy it does so by sacrificing its ability to resist the virus infection," he said. The researchers plan to test the virus as a treatment for melanoma, a skin cancer known to spread to the lungs. Additional tests of myxoma virus are planned using other animals. If everything works, the researchers will put together a package on the safety of the virus for an application to allow it to be tested on people in Canada and the United States, McFadden said. McFadden's research is supported by the Canadian Cancer Society and Canadian Institutes of Health Research, while Forsyth's work is supported by the cancer society, Clark H. Smith Integrative Brain Tumour Research Centre, Kid's Cancer Care Foundation, Alberta Cancer Society and Canadian Institutes of Health Research.