Home / News / Scientists propose to treat cancer with HIV infection

Scientists propose to treat cancer with HIV infection

One Hebrew University scientists have started to offer to apply for selective types of blood cancer treatment using protein, which, no matter how it was strange, was isolated from the HIV virus. Scientists, so to speak, "set against"malicious cancer cells the deadly HIV virus. In detail this was discussed in the newspaper"Yediot Ahronot".

Professor Moshe Kotler from the Hebrew University (Department of immunology) for as much as ten years studying in his lab all the possibilities, as with the immunodeficiency virus can be successfully fought with deadly cancer cells.

Such an unusual idea - to use as a 'weapon' of HIV in relation to malignant cancer cells - called for Moshe Kotler at a time when he, together with his colleague Ronny Nowarski learned that protein Vif, which contains the human immunodeficiency virus, is able to prevent cancer cells after damage caused by radiation therapy was restored.

The vast majority of after exposure to high, even high doses of DNA of the cancer cells are destroyed, and they are not able to continue the division, which in turn leads to their complete destruction. However, there are other cases when the cancer cells re-restore their DNA, after which they become, so to speak, "immunity", resistance to radiation. In these severe cases, which is already being called "hopeless", protein Vif is able to help, as it plays a very important role in the replication of the HIV virus.

Scientists from Israel propose a new method of cancer treatment, namely before to carry out the procedure of irradiation to enter into the patient's blood protein Vif, which is isolated from the HIV virus. He will not allow the cancer cells to re-restore their DNA. After such treatment patients should go through several sessions of radiotherapy.



Also scientists researchers noted that this treatment applies only one protein which contains the HIV virus, so no risk of Contracting AIDS during the course of treatment. Scientists from Israel very hope that in the treatment of cancer such technique will not be a large variety of complications and side effects.

This method of treatment successfully, it should be noted, is very effectively used for the treatment of cancer of the blood, mostly this technique helps in the treatment of myeloma and lymphoma. Now scientists continueresearch and hope that this technique will also be very successful to help with other types of cancer, for example leukemia.

With all the results of his long-term work, scientists from Israel will share and introduce colleagues at a special conference BioMed, which will be open in the exhibition center Ganey Taaruha in tel Aviv, on may 22, 2012.

A little earlier there were reports that scientists from America have found a way that helps to protect healthy cells during chemotherapy, which is performed during the detection of malignant tumors.