Another cure from cancer. Again! (Post No 13). Reolysin

 

And this time we are talking about something special – Reolysin. The medicine is not a cytostatic agent or agonist or even chemical – it is virus! Exiting! From Wikipedia:

Reolysin (Wild-Type Reovirus) is a formulation of reovirus that Oncolytics Biotech is developing for the treatment of various cancers and cell proliferative disorders. Reolysin is classified as a oncolytic virus, a virus that preferentially lyses cancer cells. A phase III trial for head and neck cancer is ongoing.

And the mechanism of action:

Reovirus, an acronym for Respiratory Enteric Orphan virus, generally infects mammalian respiratory and bowel systems. Most people have been exposed to reovirus by adulthood; however, the infection does not typically produce symptoms.

Reovirus was noted to be a potential cancer therapeutic when early studies on reovirus suggested it reproduces well in certain cancer cell lines. It has since been shown to replicate specifically in cells that have an activated Ras (a cellular signaling pathway that is involved in cell growth and differentiation) with very little effect in cells that do not have active Ras pathways. Reovirus replicates in and eventually kills Ras-activated tumour cells, and as cell death occurs, progeny virus particles are then free to infect surrounding cancer cells. This cycle of infection, replication and cell death is believed to be repeated until all tumour cells carrying an activated Ras pathway are destroyed. Activating mutations of the Ras protein and upstream elements of the Ras protein may play a role in more than two thirds of all human cancers,including most metastatic disease, which suggests that Reolysin may be an effective therapeutic for many Ras-activated tumor types and potentially for some cell proliferative disorders.

This approach is very unique and I hope it will be successful! I am just worry about the control over the virus – just thing if it causes an epidemic?