The Zika virus has been a thorn in the side of the health industry since it first emerged in 2015. Spread by mosquitos, the virus is relatively harmless in most adult cases, but can cause birth defects if contracted by a pregnant woman. Researchers in Brazil, however, may have found an upside to the pesky ailment: it could help treat brain cancer!
Brazilian researchers may have found a silver lining to the Zika virus: fighting cancer https://t.co/sjeu37jlBR pic.twitter.com/MedkKP53uM
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
What if a treatment was transmitted to the brain the same way Zika virus was?
Instead of developing a vaccine or using robots to release sterile bugs into the wild to sabotage mosquito populations, the Brazilian team repurposed Zika's deadly properties to fight an even deadlier threat: brain cancer https://t.co/sjeu37jlBR pic.twitter.com/ensNdSvzQg
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
Knowing how Zika attacked the developing brain, scientists wondered if the virus could have the same impact on brain tumors https://t.co/sjeu37jlBR pic.twitter.com/UD9XiWsUq1
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
Tests have been promising!
The lab tests showed that Zika mostly skipped normal tissue and went straight at the cancer cells, first in test tubes and later in mice carrying human tumor cells https://t.co/sjeu37AWtp pic.twitter.com/3yVOfbIpvT
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
The results:
– Virus-free mice died of cancer within a few weeks
– Mice infected with Zika lived longer, developed smaller tumors, suffered fewer cases of metastasis, and in some cases went into full remission https://t.co/sjeu37jlBR pic.twitter.com/pn85cOwWgk— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
But there’s still a ways to go before we start using Zika on real people.
Treating disease with disease has a long track record, but it's still early days in Zika oncolytics.
Before scientists can offer treatment, they must test the impact the tumor-killing virus has on healthy tissue https://t.co/sjeu37jlBR pic.twitter.com/mLz9gjxBu6
— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) May 27, 2018
Twitter was pretty excited by the news!
Wow. That's impressive
— In Gabe We Trust (@ChrisAntosy) May 27, 2018
Why is this not the most important news to people.. this is a potentially huge breakthrough for humanity.
— ????NightsOnRepeat???? (@NightsRepeat) May 27, 2018
Though others were a bit more skeptical…
— The Dark Lord (@voodoomagicmon) May 27, 2018
Wasnt this the plot to I Am Legend?
— Nuggz (@roastednugget) May 27, 2018
We’ve always thought of Zika as a fearful disease, but in 10 years, we may think of it as a miracle drug!
Fascinating. It will be interesting to see if this passes more trials.
— Jaclyn (@AMarvelousLight) May 27, 2018
H/T – Twitter, Getty Images