(NewsNation) — Zika virus could someday be used as an effective cancer therapy, according to a new study.
The research, led by Nemours Children’s Health and published Tuesday in Cancer Research Communications, found that injecting neuroblastoma tumors with the virus shrank or eliminated those tumors in studies with mice.
Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer that typically develops in the nervous system or adrenal glands, Nemours Children’s Health said in a news release. The 700-800 diagnosed cases each year account for 6% of childhood cancer cases but cause 15% of childhood cancer deaths.
“More than half of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma do not respond to chemotherapy or radiation, or they respond initially, but develop a recurrence,” Dr. Tamarah Westmoreland, the study’s senior author, said in the release. “These patients are in urgent need of new treatment options.”
Mosquitoes carry the Zika virus, and researchers in recent years have discovered it can be used to kill cancer cells, according to Nemours.
Researchers in this study injected half the group of mice with saline solution and the other half with Zika. They found the Zika-injected mice “experienced a nearly total loss of tumor size.”
The mice that received the highest dose experienced a total elimination of the tumor, and there was no recurrence in four weeks of follow-up. The mice did not develop any symptoms of Zika or side effects.
By comparison, the mice that were injected with saline solution saw tumors grow by as much as 800%.
“With further validation, Zika virus could be an extremely effective bridge therapy for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma,” said Joseph Mazar, the study’s co-author. “We also see potential for Zika virus to be used to treat children and adults with other cancers that express high levels of CD24.”
Researchers cautioned that more extensive studies are needed to determine if Zika virus can be effective as a cancer therapy.
Zika is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes, which is usually mild or asymptomatic.
However, a major outbreak in the Americas in 2015 and 2016 showed it can be dangerous for pregnant women and fetuses, causing devastating congenital disabilities such as microcephaly, a disorder in which a child is born with an abnormally small head and brain.
Reuters contributed to this story.
