Treating common cancer may experience some undesirable side effects, to avoid such effects, one of the new approaches has been developing by researchers. The researchers from Barcelona have developed a new genetically innovative approach by providing adenovirus, which can selectively infect and kill tumor cells.

According to LabioTech, the researchers have engineered a virus that infects the tumor cells without affecting the healthy tissues. The new cancer therapy approach is based on the development of oncolytic viruses, which can differentiate between the cancer cells and the normal cells based on the expression of so-called CPEB proteins.

CPEB is a family of four RNA binding protein that controls the expression of hundreds of genes by binding to their RNA. When it become imbalanced, the expression of the genes will change and the pathological process such as cancer will develop.

ScienceDaily added that the researchers have taken advantage of the said imbalance to create a virus that only attacks cell that has high levels of CPEB4 and low CPEB1. This means that it only affects tumor cells and ignoring those healthy tissues.

In the study, the researcher has worked with adenovirus, a family of viruses that can give infections of the respiratory tract, urinary tract, conjunctivitis, and gastroenteritis, yet, it has features that can be attractive to be used in the therapy against the cancers. The virus is indeed a promising and it is currently in preclinical development.

Since this oncoselective strategy is might be valid for other solid tumors and at the same time triggers the immune system, the viral candidate is now already in Phase I in clinical trials. The researchers are now trying to combine the treatment with the therapies that have been already used in clinical practice to find synergies that make them more effective. Although there are already some viruses in the pipeline, the new virus that has been developed by the researchers from Barcelona may be added to its developing market.

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