With a little genetic engineering, the vaccine that was key in helping eradicate smallpox more than 30 years ago could also be key in curing cancer, if a young Cleveland biotech has anything to say about it. <\/p>\n
Western Oncolytics is developing a dual-mechanism therapy that combines oncolytic virus and gene therapy technologies with the hope of wiping out the ability of cancer cells to survive in the body. <\/p>\n
CEO Kurt Rote is a first-time entrepreneur, but you wouldnt know it from talking to him. After getting a biomedical engineering degree from Duke and moving to Switzerland to get an MBA, he worked for a short time at a small biotech firm before deciding to risk everything to realize a personal dream of curing cancer. <\/p>\n
In pursuit of bleeding-edge technology, he started making calls to university researchers.I went down a list of NIH grants and talked to as many of them as possible, he said. I wanted to go where the science led me. <\/p>\n
Where it led him was to the office of Stephen H. Thorne at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center, who had been studying oncolytic viruses for years. <\/p>\n
Oncolytic viruses are genetically modified to infect and kill cancer cells while simultaneously triggering an anti-tumor immune response. Their promise lies in being able to treat cancers with side effects that parallel those of a flu shot, rather than those from chemotherapy. <\/p>\n
Although theyve been studied for decades, theyre just now advancing to the point where theyre being tested in large-scale human trials. Amgen recently completed a Phase 3 study in melanoma patients of an oncolytic virus it bought from Biovex in a 2011 deal worth up to $1 billion. The results of the trial were mixed, potentially limiting the commercial viability of the drug, but the trial serves as an important milestone for the field. <\/p>\n
The therapy developed in Thornes lab employs similar concepts but is based on more advanced technology and has shown better tumor shrinkage and remission in animal testing, Rote said. <\/p>\n
A number of different elements work together in the vaccine. It contains the vaccinia virus (used in the smallpox vaccine) with three gene modifications: the addition of two that signal T-cells to come to the tumor and reduce the number of immune suppressor cells in the tumor, respectively, and the deletion of a viral gene which leads to infected cells sending more signals to the immune system. <\/p>\n
And, to avoid the immune system from being triggered immediately, before the virus reaches the tumor, scientists have modified its surface to delay the immune response. <\/p>\n
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Visit link: With a little genetic engineering, the vaccine that was key in helping eradicate smallpox more than 30 years ago could also be key in curing cancer, if a young Cleveland biotech has anything to say about it. Western Oncolytics is developing a dual-mechanism therapy that combines oncolytic virus and gene therapy technologies with the hope of wiping out the ability of cancer cells to survive in the body. CEO Kurt Rote is a first-time entrepreneur, but you wouldnt know it from talking to him. Continue reading
\nVirus that helped eradicate smallpox takes on cancer in startups dual-mechanism immunotherapy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"