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UC scientists attack cancer cells with HIV virus

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles are using an impotent AIDS virus to hunt down metastasized melanoma cells in mice.

Their research was reported in a recent issue of Nature Medicine and is led by Irvin S.Y. Chen of UCLA's AIDS Institute.

The UCLA team employed a two-step approach to transform HIV into a cancer-seeking machine. First, the scientists used a version of HIV from which the viral pieces that cause AIDS had been removed. This allowed the virus to infect cells and spread throughout the body without provoking disease.

"The disarmed AIDS virus acts like a Trojan horse transporting therapeutic agents to a targeted part of the body, such as the lungs, where tumors often spread," said Chen, a professor of medicine, microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"For the past 20 years, gene therapy has been hampered by the lack of a good carrier for therapeutic genes that can travel through the blood and aim itself at a precise location, thereby minimizing harmful side effects," said Chen. "Our approach proves that it is possible to develop an effective carrier and reprogram it to target specific cells in the body."

To read a UC news release, click here.

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