Researchers at the School of Veterinary Medicine are helping develop an alternative treatment for breast cancer.
Genetic engineering of the non-life threatening herpes virus has allowed them to destroy breast cancer cells without harming normal cells.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is responsible for one in three cancers detected in women.
Dr. Konstantin “Gus” Kousoulas, professor and pathobiological science director, has been working with graduate students to modify the virus for treatment of human breast cancer tumors implanted in mice.
Herpes can cause painful cold sores on infected areas. Kousoulas said despite the negative connotation associated with herpes, the mutated herpes virus is a great therapy.
“You put a tumor in the back of a mouse and use the herpes virus to inactivate the tumor,” he said. “The virus is injected into the tumor and then digests the tumor. It basically eliminates the cancer.”
He said round, solid tumors were injected under the skin of many mice. Then multiple viral injections caused the tumors to shrink significantly or be destroyed in the case of some mice.
Anna Israyelyan, doctorate student, has conducted her doctorate research since fall 2004 under the supervision of Kousoulas. She was the lead author of a study published in the May 2007 issue of Human Gene Therapy, a national peer-reviewed journal. She explained some of the advantages Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1) has to other viruses.
“Some viruses are limited in their capacity to replicate in cells; however, HSV-1 is known for its wide infectious host range and selective replication in tumor lineage’s so that normal cells are not infected,” she said.
Israyelyan said the viral genome not only has the ability to kill cancer cells, but it can be engineered to carry therapeutic genes. She said HSV-1 was manipulated in the lab to carry immune stimulatory genes.
Kousoulas explained how this concept works.
“Let’s say you have a breast cancer tumor, and you inject the virus into the tumor. It will not only act as a small machine killing the tumor, but in the process, the immune system will learn to fight cancer cells in different parts of the body,” he said.
In this sense, the virus functions to vaccinate the body against other tumor cells, he said. The immune cells around the tumor learn to recognize the tumor and destroy it somewhere else.
Israyelyan said viral therapy to treat cancer cells is relatively new to cancer research. She said researchers use different viruses to treat different cancers. As a herpes virologist, Kousoulas chose to work with the herpes virus to fight breast cancer.
Kousoulas is collaborating with Dr. Augusto Ochoa, interim director of the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, part of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. The research is being funded by the National Institute of Health, Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s Biotechnology Initiative of the Louisiana Board of Regents, Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium and Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium.
Kousoulas presented the research at a major seminar in Europe as part of the Fifth International Conference for Nanotechnology. He is preparing to give a presentation at the International Gene Therapy and Cancer Conference this week.
“We are very excited about this,” Kousoulas said. “Biotechnology and molecular medicine is important to Louisiana even as an economic development issue. We have the ability to not only find new cures for cancer but also develop it. I am very positive about biotechnology in the future.”
—-Contact Natalie Messina at [email protected]