Living To 150

  Scientists at Oxford University have developed a virus to deliver knockout therapy to cancer cells in the liver, while sparing the liver itself any damaging effects.

The problem with chemotherapy is that it targets cancer cells, but damages healthy cells in the process. This new therapy would damage the cancer without the additional – unwanted – damage.

This was achieved by changing the virus so that it kept its ability to reproduce within cancer cells in mice. But this was done in such a way that the mouse’s system realised that the virus cells were foreign, and so later killed them before they caused other damage.

The therapy has the possibility of being ‘tweaked’ to attack other harmful cells – such as hepatitis cells – while keeping all – or nearly all – the none-harmful cells safe.

Cancer Research UK article

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