{"id":404,"date":"2018-05-30T14:58:24","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/163.180.4.222\/lab\/?p=404"},"modified":"2019-10-15T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T09:46:10","slug":"cancer-killing-viruses-show-promise-and-draw-billion-dollar-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=404","title":{"rendered":"Cancer-killing viruses show promise \u2014 and draw billion-dollar investment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-05104-1?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nature%2Frss%2Fcurrent+%28Nature+-+Issue%29\">\uc6d0\ubb38<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Encouraging trial results spur interest from researchers and drug giants.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__body serif cleared\">\n<figure class=\"figure\">\n<div class=\"embed intensity--high\">\n<div class=\"embed intensity--high\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure__image\" src=\"https:\/\/media.nature.com\/w800\/magazine-assets\/d41586-018-05104-1\/d41586-018-05104-1_15741970.jpg\" alt=\"Glioblastoma brain tumour.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption>\n<p class=\"figure__caption sans-serif\"><span class=\"mr10\">Researchers are trying to boost the effectiveness of cancer-killing viruses to treat conditions including brain tumours (red).<\/span>Credit: Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab\/SPL<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pharmaceutical giant Johnson &amp; Johnson announced on 2 May that it would pay up to US$1 billion to acquire a company that makes cancer-killing viruses. It was a striking show of support for a still-unproven treatment, but the bid is just the latest sign that industry and academics are warming to the approach.<\/p>\n<p>In February, Merck, headquartered in Kenilworth, New Jersey, agreed to pay US$394 million to snatch up an Australian firm working on cancer-killing, or \u2018oncolytic\u2019, viruses. And in April, about 300 people showed up for the oversubscribed International Oncolytic Virus Conference in Oxford, UK. When the conference launched in the early 2000s, there were only about 60 attendees. \u201cThey were very small meetings for these crazy people working with viruses,\u201d says Jean-Simon Diallo, a molecular biologist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. \u201cWe\u2019ve really seen a shift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Diallo credits a confluence of developments with igniting the field. One was a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/cancer-fighting-viruses-win-approval-1.18651\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/cancer-fighting-viruses-win-approval-1.18651\" data-track-category=\"body text link\">2015 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to approve<\/a>\u00a0a modified herpes virus called talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic) to treat some forms of melanoma. It was the first cancer-fighting virus to win regulatory support in the lucrative US market. Another is emerging evidence \u2014 largely from animal studies \u2014 that the viruses might work better when given in concert with other therapies called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/cancer-treatment-the-killer-within-1.14955\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/cancer-treatment-the-killer-within-1.14955\" data-track-category=\"body text link\">checkpoint inhibitors<\/a>, which boost immune responses against tumours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe intersection of these two events has really put some spice in the oncolytic-virus field,\u201d says Diallo. \u201cThe checkpoint inhibitors have really turned things around for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Death by association<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Researchers have been trying to develop cancer-fighting viruses for decades, hoping to capitalize on centuries-old observations that people with cancer sometimes go into remission after contracting a viral infection. That has spurred teams to develop a panoply of viruses \u2014 some engineered to make them safer or more effective against cancer \u2014 that have passed through the gauntlet of a clinical trial.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these trials have met with little success. Even Imlygic fell short of showing a statistically significant improvement in patient survival during a pivotal clinical trial<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-05104-1?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nature%2Frss%2Fcurrent+%28Nature+-+Issue%29#ref-CR1\">1<\/a><\/sup>. Still, the results were enough to persuade the FDA to approve the therapy for melanomas that had resisted other treatments. That study also sparked some hope among researchers by showing that a virus injected directly into one tumour could rein in tumours elsewhere in the body.<\/p>\n<p>It does so by generating an immune response. After the virus infects and kills cancer cells, the immune system kicks in to eliminate the virus, and winds up also getting rid of the dead cancer cells. \u201cThe side effect from eliminating the virus is that the systemic immune system recognizes the cancer cells,\u201d says Tomoki Todo, a neurosurgeon at the University of Tokyo. \u201cThen it starts to attack even those cancer cells that are not infected by the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Cautious optimism<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Scientists reasoned that bolstering such an immune response \u2014 for example, by using a checkpoint inhibitor \u2014 could amplify this indirect effect. Around the time of Imlygic\u2019s approval, checkpoint inhibitors were showing promise against several different cancers, including melanoma and lung cancer. These inhibitors sometimes send cancer into remission for years, but only for a fraction of people.<\/p>\n<p>Studies in mice suggest that combining checkpoint inhibitors with cancer-killing viruses might boost that percentage. And in a small clinical trial involving 21 people with advanced melanoma, Imlygic, together with a checkpoint inhibitor called pembrolizumab, significantly shrank tumours in 62% of participants and wiped them out altogether in 33% of cases<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-018-05104-1?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nature%2Frss%2Fcurrent+%28Nature+-+Issue%29#ref-CR2\">2<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>When researchers have combined checkpoint inhibitors with other treatments, they have met with mixed success. Some fervently anticipated combinations have failed in clinical trials. \u201cCould the same thing happen with oncolytic viruses? Sure,\u201d says Dmitriy Zamarin, an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>But Zamarin and others are cautiously optimistic. Many checkpoint-inhibitor combinations target a specific protein, Zamarin notes, whereas oncolytic viruses provoke a much broader immune response that can target cancer in a number of different ways. \u201cThat gives us some comfort,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"emphasis\">Nature<\/span>\u00a0<strong>557<\/strong>, 150-151 (2018)<\/p>\n<div class=\"emphasis\">doi: 10.1038\/d41586-018-05104-1<\/div>\n<section class=\"c-latest-content mt40\" data-simple-tab=\"\" data-tab-group=\"\">\n<div id=\"latest-content\" role=\"tablist\">\n<p class=\"serif strong\">\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; (\uc6d0\ubb38) &nbsp; &nbsp; Encouraging trial results spur interest from researchers and drug giants. &nbsp; &nbsp; Researchers are trying to boost the effectiveness of<a href=\"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=404\" class=\"more-link\">(more&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,33,29,30],"tags":[6,7,3,4],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-on-science","category-do-biology","category-lets-do-science","category-recent-science-news","tag-essays-on-science","tag-do-biology","tag-lets-do-science","tag-recent-science-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1366,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=1366","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":0},"title":"Mini-tumours turn immune cells into cancer fighters","author":"biochemistry","date":"August 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 (\uc6d0\ubb38) \u00a0 \u00a0 Tumour \u2018organoids\u2019 in lab dishes (left) were seeded with tissue removed from a human lung tumour (right). Credit: K. K. Dijkstra\u00a0et al.\/Cell \u00a0\u00a0 Mini-tumours turn immune cells into cancer fighters Personalized white blood cells attack tumours after incubation with cancer tissue. \u00a0 \u00a0 Miniature tumours\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Let's Do Biology!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Let's Do Biology!","link":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":955,"url":"https:\/\/biochemistry.khu.ac.kr\/lab\/?p=955","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":1},"title":"How cells imprison viruses in molecular cages","author":"biochemistry","date":"June 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 (\uc6d0\ubb38) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Vaccinia virus particles (pictured) can be immobilized \u2014 at least temporarily \u2014 by host cells. 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