February 14, 2009 - (BRONX, NY) - Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have piggybacked antibodies onto radioactive payloads to deliver doses of radiation that selectively target and destroy microbial and HIV-infected cells. The experimental treatment - called radioimmunotherapy, or RIT - holds promise for treating various infectious diseases, including HIV and cancers caused by viruses. The research was presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and the publishers of the journal Science.
A ground-breaking Canada-wide clinical trial led by Dr. Katherine Borden, at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Universit de Montral, has shown that a common anti-viral drug, ribavirin, can be beneficial in the treatment of cancer patients. Published in the journal Blood (First Edition), the study demonstrates that ribavirin suppresses the activities of the eIF4E gene in patients. This gene is dysregulated in 30 percent of cancers including breast, prostate, head and neck, colon and stomach cancer.
Antitumor activity of human papillomavirus type 16 E7-specific T cells against virally infected squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Albers A, Abe K, Hunt J, Wang J, Lopez-Albaitero A, Schaefer C, Gooding W, Whiteside TL, Ferrone S, DeLeo A, Ferris RL.
Cancer Res. 2005 Dec 1;65(23):11146-55.
PMID: 16322265
D structure of the virus, known as Seneca Valley Virus-001, reveals that it is unlike any other known member of the Picornaviridae viral family, and confirms its recent designation as a separate genus "Senecavirus." The new study reveals that the virus's outer protein shell looks like a craggy golf ball¬-one with uneven divets and raised spikes-and the RNA strand beneath it is arranged in a round mesh rather like a whiffleball. "It is not at all like other known picornaviruses that we are familiar with, including poliovirus and rhinoviruses, which cause the common cold," says the study's senior author, Associate Professor Vijay S. Reddy, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute. "This crystal structure will now help us understand how Senecavirus works, and how we can take advantage of it."
The Senecavirus is a "new" virus, discovered several years ago by Neotropix Inc., a biotech company in Malvern, Pennsylvania. It was at first thought to be a laboratory contaminant, but researchers found it was a pathogen, now believed to originate from cows or pigs. Further investigation found that the virus was harmless to normal human cells, but could infect certain solid tumors, such as small cell lung cancer, the most common form of lung cancer.
For five gruelling months in 2006 and 2007, Carol Kanga suffered through treatment for a life-threatening case of throat cancer linked to an unlikely source: a sexually transmitted viral infection.
Kanga's treatment was successful, but the virus that struck her is causing increasing concern among some researchers who think it is causing a small-scale epidemic of throat cancer.
That virus, scientists have proved only in the last two years, is human papillomavirus, or HPV - the same virus that's behind most cases of cervical cancer.
A proprietary extract prepared from co-cultured mycelia of several species of Basidiomycete mushrooms, including shiitake (Lentinus edodes), active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) is extracted from mushrooms using hot water following an enzyme pretreatment, but specific mushroom source and preparation details have not been fully disclosed. Patients use this to prevent and treat cancer. Animal studies suggest that AHCC has antioxidant effects and may protect against disorders induced by oxidative stress (1) and may also enhance resistance against bacterial (2) (7)and viral infections (3). In healthy humans, AHCC increased dendritic cell number and function (4)
In vitro and animal studies show that AHCC exhibits some anticancer activities, but the results of these studies are vague