Dr Rob Ewing, an Assoc Prof in Cancer Systems Biology will be assessing, ‘How does the Zika virus kill Neuroblastoma cells? A potential new oncolytic virotherapy for Neuroblastoma’.
At an outreach event at the New Forest Show in July 2022 Members of our research group presented our work in understanding how the Zika virus can be used to control paediatric CNS tumours such as Neuroblastoma to members of the public.
Members of this team at Southampton discovered that the Zika virus can specifically infect and kill cells in childhood brain tumours, and it has shown some promise in the laboratory with aggressive neuroblastoma. The funded research will look into the appropriateness of using this virus to specifically infect and destroy cancer cells without destroying normal cells; an approach known as oncolytic virotherapy. These are attractive potential treatments for childhood cancers as they typically have low toxicity and are well tolerated.
The specific aims of this project are to generate some pilot data for this conceptually new approach for neuroblastoma. This pilot data could be extremely helpful to further work in this emerging area.
