UTMB adapts Zika vaccine to fight brain cancer

Vaccine attacked cancer cells but not healthy ones Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston have successfully harnessed a Zika virus vaccine under development to target and kill the brain cancer known as glioblastoma. The findings are currently available in MBio. The Zika virus can cause microcephaly, a condition where the fetal brain doesn’t fully develop when a pregnant woman is infected with the virus. In contrast, glioblastoma dangerously multiplies brain cells into cancerous tumors. The altered Zika vaccine effectively targeted and destroyed the cancerous brain cells in mice but not healthy cells. “These findings represent major progress toward developing the Zika vaccine as a safe and effective virotherapeutic treatment for human glioblastoma,” said UTMB’s Pei-Yong Shi, lead investigator and professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Glioblastoma is the deadliest and most common type of brain tumor. Despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, glioblastoma has a high rate...