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Was watching the news the other day and they had a segment about a doctor from duke using the polio virus to treat cancer. Apparently the trials have proven successful, but that got me thinking, I've heard this somewhere before. That's when I realized, isn't that how the movie "I am legend" started? :wow:
Seriously tho, i was amazed to hear it's working and hope its success continues.
there is a lot of work around the notion of using virus' innate ability to target and infiltrate human cells, to cure cancer. the notion being, if we can rewrite the code a bit, use a virus that targets only cancer cells, then inject this, it will get the cancer cells "sick" and kill them.
i have not herd of anyone using literally a virus to kill cancer though.
It was my understanding (I'm human, not always right and interpret information differently from others sometimes like everyone else) but the way it's working is that the virus is injected into cancer cells and the body's immune system attacks the virus and thus also attacks the cancer cells. There was more information that I missed because I was at work watching the news and had about 10 other guys having conversations without regard for anyone else'shearing...
this was recently featured in an episode of vice on HBO. it's not 100% there yet, i think they've only developed it for a few kinds of cancer cells, but when it works the patient is cancer-free.Quote:
Originally Posted by cockerpunk
The technology isn't new, but rather advanced some. They're using a weaken or genetically modifying polio virus where the DNA is changed. The human body's immune system normally defends the body of foreign bodies that invade the natural barrier. The human bodies immune system can attach the foreign body and eliminate the insulting mutated cell (i.e. cancer cell). The weaken polio virus targets the specific cancer mutation and therefore the body tries to dispose of the cancer cells from the bodies immune response to the weaken polio virus. This is similar to the active immunity immunization to influenza and some of the childhood shots (i.e. MMR). The advancement comes from sciences ability to have the weaken polio virus target the specific cancer cell.