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Mosquitoes: Pests or cancer-fighting machines?

Physician Practice Advisor, February 4, 2004

Sindbis, a virus carried by mosquitoes, kills tumor cells in mice while leaving healthy cells untouched according to a January 2004 study published by the New York University School of Medicine. Though the virus is at least two years away from human trials, researchers are eyeing the Sindbis' potential to treat some forms of cancer because of its ability to target a variety of tumors (e.g. under the skin, in the pancreas, in the main body cavity, or in the lungs).

"Nature gave us a gift in Sindbis," says Daniel Mereulo, Ph.D.. and professor of pathology at NYU School of Medicine and principal investigator in the study. "It has a natural ability to infect tumor cells almost exclusively and naturally induce cell death in these tumor cells."

Sindbis's ability to target cells is unusual in two ways. It needs no modification to target tumor cells, and it doesn't need to be injected directly into the tumor to be effective. Although results varied in the mice, tumors generally disappeared completely after one to two months of daily injections.

Visit http://www.med.nyu.edu/communications/news/pr_37.html to read the entire release.

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