Viruses May Be the Future of Boosting Immunotherapy in Neuro-Oncology

The two biggest and most complex challenges in biology come together under the umbrella of neuro-oncology. The first are the puzzles surrounding the development, structure and function of the human brain. The second is the process behind formation, development and growth of tumors that cause the most complex and poorly understood disease we term cancer.

There is a type of virus called reovirus which crosses the blood-brain barrier to reach tumours, where it is replicate and kill the cancer cells. The virus was able to boost up the body’s own immune system to attack the cancer. Reovirus therapy could be used in conjunction with other cancer therapies to make them more potent.

Our immune systems aren’t very good to detect cancers cells because they are very similar to our body’s own cells, and partly because cancers are good at telling immune cells to turn a blind eye. But the immune system is very good at seeing viruses. When the brain tumours infected with reovirus became much more visible to the immune system of our body.

The virus is administered through a single-dose intravenous drip. The presence of reovirus stimulated the body’s own immune system, with white blood cells which increased cytotoxic T cell tumor infiltration and up-regulated PD-1 and PD-L1 gene expression. These ‘killer’ T-cells are attracted to the tumour site to attack the cancer cells. The virus infects cancer cells and leaves healthy cells alone, patients receiving the treatment reported only mild flu-like side effects.

This can be called as a wake-up call which is sufficient to kill the cancer cells and offer assistance to move forward survival of patients with brain tumors.