Study: Harmless virus kills so...( Scientists have suspected that AAV2 ...)

Scientists have suspected that AAV2 has cancer-suppressing properties. In previous studies, Meyers and his team found that one of the ways AAV2 suppresses cancer is by inhibiting the normal process of DNA duplication of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is known to lead to cervical cancer. A second way AAV2 suppresses cancer is linked to its ability to slow cell-cycle progression by decreasing cancer cell proliferation rates and causing growth arrest.

In this study, the team first used HPV infected epithelial cells and normal human epithelial cells, which are natural hosts for both AAV2 and HPV. In cultures infected with both AAV2 and HPV, the team found that after six days, all HPV infected cells had died. Meyers then used the same approach in four types of cancer cervical, breast, prostate and squamous cell - all epithelial cell cancers. Epithelial cells are those that cover or line all of the internal and external parts of the body. No matter the type of epithelial cancer cells, when treated with AAV2, all cancer cells were dead in six days. Though previous have investigated the cancer-targeting potential of AAV2, none allowed the AAV2 to remain in culture long enough to see the effect that Meyers and his team observed.

"One of the most compelling findings is that AAV2 appears to have no pathologic effects on healthy cells," Meyers said. "So many cancer therapies are as poisonous to healthy cells as they are to cancer cells. A therapy that is able to distinguish between healthy and cancer cells could be less difficult to endure for those with cancer."

Though similar in design and effectiveness to some gene therapies, Meyers and his team did not modify the AAV2, but left it in its natural form. Therefore, it would not be classified as a gene therapy.

Future studies will investigate the precise mechanisms through which AAV2 causes cancer cell death, and how the virus might be enhanced to more aggressively target and kill cancer
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Contact: Valerie Gliem
vgliem@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State
21-Jun-2005

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