coldvirus against melanoma

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/5/04 6:45:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,

redactie@... writes:

> The incidence of malignant melanoma continues to increase worldwide;

> however, treatment of metastatic melanoma remains unsatisfactory

There was talk of a vaccine developed at St. 's Hospital in NYC that

stopped the spread of melanoma and seemed to reduce it. I don't know what

happened in the long term but I was told that short term it seemed to do the

job.

[Guest guest]

Quite interesting I think? Coverstory at the Clinical Research Journal in

january 2004.

Gr. kees Braam

webmaster www.kanker-actueel.nl

Clinical Cancer Research Vol. 10, 53-60, January 2004

© 2004 American Association for Cancer Research

Systemic Therapy of Malignant Human Melanoma Tumors by a Common Cold-Producing

Enterovirus, sackievirus A21

Darren R. Shafren12, Gough G. Au1, Tam Nguyen3, G. Newcombe1, S.

Haley2, Leone Beagley2, E. ne Johansson1, Hersey3 and D.

Barry12

1The Picornaviral Research Unit, Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health, The

University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia;2 ViroTarg Pty.

Ltd., Industry Development Centre, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; and3

Immunology and Oncology Unit, Mater Hospital, Newcastle, New South Wales,

Australia

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The incidence of malignant melanoma continues to increase worldwide;

however, treatment of metastatic melanoma remains unsatisfactory, and there is

an urgent need for development of effective targeted therapeutics. A potential

biological target on the surface of malignant melanoma cells is the up-regulated

expression of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and decay-accelerating

factor (DAF), relative to surrounding benign tissue. sackievirus A21 (a

common cold virus) targets and destroys susceptible cells via specific viral

capsid interactions with surface-expressed virus receptors comprising ICAM-1 and

DAF.

Experimental Design: The oncolytic capacity of a genetically unmodified

wild-type common cold-producing human enterovirus (sackievirus A21, CAV21)

was assessed against in vitro cultures and in vivo xenografts of malignant human

melanoma cells.

Results: In vitro studies established that human melanoma cells endogenously

express elevated levels of ICAM-1/DAF and were highly susceptible to rapid viral

oncolysis by CAV21 infection, whereas ICAM-1/DAF-expressing peripheral blood

lymphocytes were refractile to infection. In vivo studies revealed that the

tumor burden of nonobese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient mice bearing

multiple s.c. melanoma xenografts was rapidly reduced by oncolysis mediated by a

single administration of CAV21. The antitumor activity of CAV21 was

characterized by highly efficient systemic spread of progeny CAV21, with

oncolysis of tumors also occurring at sites distant to the primary site of viral

administration.

Conclusions: Overall, the findings presented herein demonstrate an important

proof of principle using administration of replication-competent CAV21 as a

potential biological oncolytic agent in the control of human metastatic

melanoma.

Het krantenartikel:

The common cold virus most people try their hardest to avoid is very likely to

be the cure for malignant melanoma, Australian scientists have discovered in a

major breakthrough announced. A team of researchers at the University of

Newcastle believe they have made an exciting discovery in the treatment of the

usually deadly skin cancer of which Australia with its fair-skinned people and

hot sun has the highest rate in the world. " We have established that melanoma

cells can be destroyed by infecting them with a common cold virus, " the lead

researcher, associate professor Darren Shafren said. " We believe this is a

significant break-through in the development of the treatment of melanoma. We

are very excited about it. " " The results we have had using human cells and also

in animal studies have been very exciting. If we can replicate this success in

human trials then it could be available within a year or two. " The research has

just been published as the cover story in the January 2004 edition of Clinical

Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research

(AACR). Shafron, 40, believes a treatment of the disease will be tested first on

a few terminal patients and could be available even for advanced cases almost

immediately. But it would be subject to regulatory hurdles, which could take

longer. " I would say it should be available within one to two years, but it

could be a lot earlier than that if we get lucky, " Shafron told AFP in an

interview. " We are pretty optimistic about it as long as we can get through the

red tape. I can't really say too much about it, but we have stuff ready to go

and we just have to do the best we can to get through the regulatory

authorities. " Skin cancer is so common here that it would be of huge benefit in

a country in which one in every two people will develop some form of the disease

at some stage. Some 300,000 Australians will visit a doctor this year to have a

skin cancer removed. Almost 9000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year,

about 1000 Australians die of melanoma, which is the fifth most common form of

cancer. The projected process involves injecting the common cold virus, the

coxsackievirus, into the melanoma site, the virus replicates itself and is

expected then to start to kill off the melanoma. Shafron says that within weeks,

there is a reduction in the size of the melanoma and it eventually disappears.

" When the secondary action begins, we expect the virus to circulate the body

finding and killing off melanomas in the same manner with the effect that it

will seek out and kill melanomas that may be undetectable, " he added. " This is a

community occurring virus, not a manufactured drug or a genetically altered

virus. We believe it could even be effective for people with advanced melanoma. "

The work, based on technology developed by the picornavirus department at the

university over the past four years, is being conducted at the local

biotechnology company ViroTarg's laboratory in the Royal Newcastle Hospital 150

kilometres north of Sydney. AFP

[Guest guest]

I recall seeing a programme on t.v. a short time ago regarding the

cold virus being used to treat melanoma. At the time I didn't take

much notice of it as my husband hadn't been diagnosed with it at

that stage. However, I will do further research into it further now.

Thanks

believer