UAB Magazine
The usually docile reovirus has a dark side — for brain tumor cells. Now UAB researchers are determining if the common virus could become a treatment for malignant glioma, the most severe form of brain tumor. "Health noncancerous cells in our bodies have the ability to prevent reovirus from replicating, so even if we are infected with the virus, we do not usually exhibit significant symptoms, says James Markert, M.D., UAB neurosurgery director and principal investigator for the clinical trial. "But brain tumor cells do not have that protection, due to a mutation in their DNA; so the reovirus replicates, destroying the tumor cell, and the replicated virus goes in search of new tumor cells to infect and destroy."
That last capacity particularly intrigues researchers; glioma cells can migrate to other parts of the brain along axons, or nerve transmission lines, and reovirus may share that same ability. UAB is currently the only institution participating in the clinical trial.