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Article: Altered cold virus may change into cancer-cell killer
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- October 18, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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WASHINGTON Reshuffling the genes of an ordinary cold virus turns
it into a cancer-killer able to seek out and destroy tumor cells,
researchers report. The therapy is being tested on humans.
A mutated version of adenovirus, one of several viruses that
cause the common cold, was shown in studies on mice to attack and
kill human cancer cells that lack a gene called P53.
About half of all human cancers have a defective or missing P53
gene.
"The mutated virus takes over and turns the (cancer) cell into a
factory to make more virus," said Frank McCormick, a researcher at
Onyx Pharmaceuticals in Richmond, Calif. "After a day or two, the