New strategies against cancer involve the use of viruses to transport genes that kill tumor cells. One of the world leaders in this field spoke about this at research center (CIMA) of the University of Navarra. His name is David T. Curiel and he directs the Center for Gene Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA). At position he has a team of more than 50 scientists, including physicians, biologists and experts in various disciplines related to the life sciences. His goal is to turn gene therapy into a new therapeutic modality that will revolutionize the medical internship and improve the prognosis of serious diseases such as cancer.

Dr. Curiel took part in the seminars of the area Gene Therapy and Hepatology of CIMA, with whose approach he agrees in defending a model of translational research . As he explained, the goal is to achieve a "close relationship between the laboratory and the clinic, what is called bench to bed (from the bench of laboratory to the patient's bed)". Dr. Curiel himself is an example of a physician who, at a certain point in his healthcare degree program , looks to biomedical research for a solution to the limitations he finds in classical medicine.

Tumor "killer" viruses

David Curiel explained the latest developments in gene therapy, which consists of the transfer of genetic material to treat diseases: "Today we have abundant information on which genes could have a curative effect on various ailments. The difficult part is to find an effective and safe method for introducing these genes into the cells that require them and regulating their function within them".

It is precisely the resolution of this problem that has been the focus of Dr. Curiel's research in recent years. To this end, he has chosen the strategy of using viruses as a vehicle for transporting genes, taking advantage of these microorganisms to introduce their genetic material into our cells.

His laboratory tests various modifications of a relatively harmless virus, the adenovirus, manager of some of the most common colds and intestinal infections. Dr. Curiel's team was able to modify these viruses by engineering techniques Genetics so that they selectively infect tumor cells and leave normal tissue cells free.

"The task is extremely delicate and requires a thorough knowledge, both of the biology of the virus and of the different tumor types. It is necessary to identify the components of the virus responsible for the binding of the virus to the cells, and to replace them with others that direct the virus into the cancer cells. But it is not enough for the virus to infect the cancer cell. It is necessary for it to eliminate it," he said.

With this cancer-fighting goal , their laboratory succeeded in developing tumor-killing viruses. They used different strategies, such as introducing toxic genes into the viruses themselves or giving the viruses the ability to reproduce only inside the tumor cells, a process that leads to their death, without affecting other tissues. In this way the cells accumulate viruses until they die, and a new generation of viruses is released ready, if all goes well, to continue infecting and killing more cells until the tumor is completely destroyed. Dr. Curiel noted that some of these strategies have shown promising results in animal models. They will soon be tested in small groups of cancer patients, in what are called subject I clinical trials.