(Press-News.org) University of Florida Health researchers have discovered that a rabbit virus can deliver a one-two punch, killing some kinds of cancer cells while eliminating a common and dangerous complication of bone marrow transplants.
For patients with blood cancers such as leukemia and multiple myeloma, a bone marrow transplant can be both curative and perilous. It replenishes marrow lost to disease or chemotherapy but raises the risk that newly transplanted white blood cells will attack the recipient's body.
Now researchers say the myxoma virus, found in rabbits, can do double duty, quelling the unwanted side effects of a bone marrow transplant and destroying cancer cells.
The virus could be especially helpful to patients who have recurring cancer but cannot find a suitable bone marrow donor, said Christopher R. Cogle, M.D., the study's lead investigator and an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine's division of hematology and oncology. Bone marrow transplants from partially matched donors carry about an 80 percent risk of graft-versus-host disease, and the myxoma treatment would address that, Cogle said.
The myxoma virus also could improve bone marrow transplant options among African-Americans and the elderly. Those patients are less likely to find fully matched bone marrow donors, which raises the risk of graft-versus-host disease, according to Cogle.
"Myxoma is one of the best strategies because it is effective but doesn't affect normal stem cells," he said.
During laboratory testing on human cells, the process worked this way: The myxoma virus is attached to a type of white blood cell known as a T-cell. The virus-laden white blood cells can then be delivered as part of a bone marrow transplant from a donor. That's when the virus gets activated and goes to work. It blocks graft-versus-host disease, a complication of bone marrow transplants that can cause problems including skin rash, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, jaundice and muscle weakness. In severe cases, these complications can be fatal. The white blood cells then deliver the myxoma virus to cancer cells, which are killed off by the virus.
The findings were published in the April 22 edition of the journal Blood. After successfully testing the process with human cells, researchers are now studying its effectiveness in a mouse model.
The dual action of the myxoma virus is particularly encouraging, said Grant McFadden, Ph.D., a professor in the UF College of Medicine department of molecular genetics and microbiology. It's the first time that a virus has been shown to simultaneously prevent graft-versus-host disease and kill cancer cells in the laboratory, McFadden said.
The process is known to work on blood-related disorders such as multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia but could someday have broader application for other kinds of cancer, he said. The myxoma virus originates among rabbits in Australia and parts of Europe and is benign to humans.
The discovery might never have happened if not for a chance meeting at a coffee kiosk on the health campus. Cogle and McFadden introduced themselves to each other, which led to a collaboration that has lasted seven years.
"It's one of the benefits of a health research campus like UF," Cogle said. "His virus killed the cancer cells that I grew in my lab and spared normal blood stem cells."
Another crucial part of the research team's work was done by Nancy Villa, Ph.D., a research scientist in the division of hematology and oncology. Villa's findings were crucial to understanding and explaining how myxoma prevents graft-versus-host disease, Cogle said. McFadden credits Villa for finding a way to explain to other scientists how the virus-laden white blood cells can prevent graft-versus-host disease and still be an effective killer of cancer cells. That knowledge will be crucial as the team presses on with its research, McFadden said.
After the initial success with human cells, McFadden is cautiously optimistic that a clinical trial could begin within a year. Before that, researchers need to develop a clinical-grade virus, do safety testing and raise about $1 million for clinical trials. The UF-owned patent on the myxoma process has been licensed to a Houston-based company, which will seek to raise money for clinical trials, Cogle said.
INFORMATION:
The research was supported by grants of $1.5 million each from the Florida Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program and the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute. Additional financial support came from the Gatorade Trust, which is administered by the department of medicine and the UF Research Foundation.
Cells have devised many structures for transporting molecular cargo across their protective borders, but the nuclear pore complex, with its flower-like, eight-fold symmetry, stands out. Monstrously large by cellular standards, as well as versatile, this elaborate portal controls access to and exit from the headquarters of the cell, the nucleus.
In research published June 4 in Cell, Rockefeller University scientists have uncovered crucial steps in the dynamic dance that dilates and constricts the nuclear pore complex -- the latest advance in their ongoing efforts to tease ...
NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite flew over Hurricane Blanca in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and gathered infrared data on the storm that was false-colored to show locations of the strongest thunderstorms within the storm.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite or VIIRS instrument aboard the satellite gathered infrared data of the storm that was made into an image at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The image was false-colored to show temperature. Coldest cloud top temperatures indicate higher, stronger, thunderstorms within a tropical cyclone. Those are typically ...
For being so small, fruit flies have had a large impact on genetic research. Thomas Werner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, has bridged the miniscule and the massive in an effort to better understand the mechanisms behind several unique features of fruit fly genes.
Over the past week, several studies that Werner co-authored have been published in PLoS ONE, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Education. All are linked by Drosophila--a genus of fruit flies--and the insights that fruit fly genetics ...
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- When it comes to the three-horned dinosaur called the Triceratops, science is showing the ancient creatures might have been a little more complex than we thought.
In fact, their teeth were far more intricate than any reptile or mammal living today.
Biological Science Professor Gregory Erickson and a multiuniversity team composed of engineers and paleontologists content that the Triceratops developed teeth that could finely slice through dense material giving them a richer and more varied diet than modern-day reptiles.
Erickson and the team ...
As the ocean absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) released by the burning of fossil fuels, its chemistry is changing. The CO2 reacts with water molecules, lowering the ocean's pH in a process known as ocean acidification. This process also removes carbonate ions, an essential ingredient needed by corals and other organisms to build their skeletons and shells.
Will some corals be able to adapt to these rapidly changing conditions? If so, what will these coral reefs look like as the oceans become more acidic?
In addition to laboratory experiments that simulate future ...
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- June 5, 2015 -- Staphylococcus aureus -- better known as Staph -- is a common inhabitant of the human nose, and people who carry it are at increased risk for dangerous Staph infections.
However, it may be possible to exclude these unwelcome guests using other more benign bacteria, according to a new study led by scientists representing the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), the Statens Serum Institut, and Milken Institute School of Public Health (SPH) at the George Washington University.
The study, published today in the AAAS journal ...
BOSTON (June 5, 2015) - A daily sugar-sweetened beverage habit may increase the risk for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HRNCA) at Tufts University report today in the Journal of Hepatology.
The researchers analyzed 2,634 self-reported dietary questionnaires from mostly Caucasian middle-aged men and women enrolled in the National Heart Lunch and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Framingham Heart Study's Offspring and Third Generation cohorts. The sugar-sweetened beverages on the questionnaires ...
BOSTON (June 5, 2015) -- A joint position statement outlining when, how and what type of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSME/S) should be delivered to patients is being released today at the American Diabetes Association's 75th Scientific Sessions. The statement is also being published online concurrently in Diabetes Care, The Diabetes Educator and the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
The statement -- written by representatives of the American Diabetes Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) and the Academy of ...
Scientists have defined the smallest, most accurate thermometer allowed by the laws of physics -- one that could detect the smallest fluctuations in microscopic regions, such as the variations within a biological cell.
The research, involving mathematicians at The University of Nottingham and published in the latest edition of the journal Physical Review Letters, focuses on the sensitivity of thermometers made up of just a handful of atoms and small enough to exhibit distinctive 'quantum' features.
Devising sensitive and practical nano-scale thermometers would represent ...
Honest behavior is much like sticking to a diet. When facing an ethical dilemma, being aware of the temptation before it happens and thinking about the long-term consequences of misbehaving could help more people do the right thing, according to a new study.
The study, "Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically," by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Behavioral Science and Marketing Professor Ayelet Fishbach and Rutgers Business School Assistant Professor Oliver J. Sheldon, was recently published in the Personality and Social Psychology ...
