Killing Cancer With Autophagy

(From EurekAlert). Cancer researchers are turning out some impressive technological demonstrations these days, building on ten years of rapid advancement in biotechnology. "An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves ... The modified adenovirus homed in on malignant glioma cells in mice and induced enough self-cannibalization among the cancer cells - a process called autophagy - to reduce tumor size and extend survival ... This virus uses telomerase, an enzyme found in 80 percent of brain tumors, as a target. Once the virus enters the cell, it needs telomerase to replicate. Normal brain tissue does not have telomerase, so this virus replicates only in cancer cells."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/uotm-tvc050206.php

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