Curing Cancer with Zika

The same dangerous virus that causes severe brain damage in infants may someday be used to target cancer cells in the brain, according to recent research.

Many chemotherapy compounds consist of large molecules that cannot penetrate the body’s natural defense mechanism—known as the blood-brain barrier—which is also impenetrable to most microbes. However, unlike most microbes, Zika does have the ability to cross this barrier where it infects and kills stem cells. And it’s this very ability that could make it useful for attacking deadly brain cancers.

The virus has been tested on glioblastoma, a common type of cancer that is difficult to treat. Tumor samples grown in the lab were exposed to Zika where the virus destroyed the cancer stem cells. Furthermore, ordinary (i.e., non-stem cell) noncancerous brain cells were not affected. Subsequent testing in mice that had been implanted with glioblastomas showed that treated mice lived longer (sometimes twice as long) than would normally be expected.

Until concerns about possible transmission to pregnant women are addressed, there are no current plans to begin human testing in the United States, but researchers are looking at ways to genetically modify the virus and still maintain its viability as a treatment. In the United Kingdom, however, where the mosquitos that carry Zika cannot survive, a team is considering a human trial of the unaltered virus to determine whether it could improve survival.