Enormous resources are being channeled into studying different ways to support the immune system in its fight against cancer. One emerging approach is the use of oncolytic viruses. This approach seeks to leverage viruses to destroy cancer by attacking and killing its cells.
The approach stems from the discovery that a number of cancers are linked to viral infections, such as HPV, which has been linked to the development of head and neck cancer, as well as cervical cancer. Liver cancer has also been linked to the hepatitis B virus. A number of vaccines have been developed to prevent some of these cancers by preventing infection by these viruses.
Scientists are now looking to go a step further by searching for ways to use viruses as therapy for cancer once it has developed in a patient. This is where oncolytic virus therapy comes in. A number of viruses are being modified while others are studied in their natural state as anti-cancer agents. This method holds promise due to several factors.
The first is the existing science showing that many cancers have low capacity to fight against viruses. This has created a window through which viral agents can be exploited to infect the cancer and cause it to die off inside the body of a patient.
The other reason is that viruses can be modified to give them attributes that can be helpful, such as lowering their likelihood to infect healthy cells in the body. This makes their impact restricted to cancerous cells. Furthermore, engineered viruses can be created to carry medicinal payloads that target cancer cells, thus causing the cancer to release antigens that trigger the immune system to create mechanisms through which the body can attack the cancer.
Such immune responses help to mop up any remaining cancer cells close to the tumor and elsewhere within the body since cancerous cells normally circulate within the blood and that is how the disease eventually metastasizes.
However, this treatment approach is not without risks. The immune system can overreact to the presence of these oncolytic viruses, and that can trigger a variety of side effects that range from mild to severe, depending on the particular virus used and attributes within the patient. Some side effects could include nausea, fatigue, chills, fever, pain at the injection site and symptoms similar to those caused by the flu.
Plenty of work therefore needs to be done to get this therapy to a level where it combats the cancer without triggering adverse events in patients. Scientists are hard at work honing this treatment approach, and companies like Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) are putting plenty of resources into advancing oncolytic virus therapy.
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