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Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have successfully harnessed a Zika virus vaccine under development to target and kill the brain cancer-glioblastoma. 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.
Glioblastoma multiplies brain cells into cancerous tumors. The altered Zika vaccine effectively targeted and destroyed the cancerous brain cells in mice but not healthy cells. Glioblastoma is the deadliest and most common type of brain tumor. Despite surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, glioblastoma has a high rate of return with an average survival of less than two years.
Glioblastoma is a cancer of the glial cells enmeshed throughout the brain that provide structure, nutrition and oxygen for the nerve cells. The tumor recurrence is likely due to cancerous glioblastoma stem cells that hide in brain tissue close to the tumor mass even after surgery. Microcephaly likely develops because Zika virus targets stem cells in the fetal brain.
These observations led researchers to test the safety and effectiveness of UTMB’s potential Zika virus vaccine in treating mice that were given human glioblastoma tumors to see if the virus would infect and kill the glioblastoma stem cells without harming normal brain cells. They found that the Zika vaccine caused no neurological symptoms or behavioral abnormalities while significantly reducing tumor growth and prolonging survival.