AUSTIN (KXAN) — An experimental chemo therapy drug may change how we fight cancer by treating it like a virus.
Discovered by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the potential drug, called Compound 1, causes cancer cells to release the same signals normal cells release when infected by a virus in preclinical models. This is called viral mimicry.
In an experiment, the immune system attacked these cancer cells as if they were a virus.
“Why did the immune system see these cancer cells as not being ‘self’ and attack them? But now we can connect the dots. The cancer cells are acting like they’re infected,” said Brent Iverson, a professor of chemistry at UT and co-author of a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…