The US Department of Defense has awarded a research grant to a group of veterinary virologists to explore using a modified poultry virus as a vaccine for human prostate cancer.

The virus, Avian Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), poses no threat to humans, and is one of several oncolytic viruses being explored to treat human cancers. However, the NDV work is using a reverse genetics process to alter the virus in order to stimulate it to target prostate cancer cells only.

The reverse genetics system being explored at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, generates a recombinant virus from cloned complimentary DNA (cDNA) that has had specific changes introduced to it to cause a change in how the virus acts.

The team is testing a version of the virus created that only replicates in cells which contain prostate specific antigen (PSA) found only in prostate cancer tumors.

Other research has demonstrated that normal cells have an interferon antiviral system that activates when they are infected with NDV preventing the virus from replicating. However, cancer cells do not have a working interferon antiviral system leaving them susceptible to NDV infection.

Unchecked NDV infection and replication in the cancer cells should cause the cell to die by apoptosis.

Analysis: This could be an exciting development should it pan out that the avian virus is able to kill only prostate cancer cells leaving other tissues alone. The reverse genetics process being used is innovative and could lead to the development of many solutions to cancers and other diseases.

Source: Veterinary scientists explore poultry virus as cancer cure. ThePoultrySite.Com. (press release).