Plant viruses are expected to become a new breakthrough in cancer immunotherapy

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego used a virus that grows on black-eyed pea plants to develop a new treatment that can isolate metastatic cancer from the lungs

This research was published in the journal " Advanced Science " on September 14, 2021

Lung cancer is one of the most common forms of metastasis in various cancers

Researchers at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have developed an experimental treatment to combat this spread

The idea is to use plant viruses to help the human immune system recognize and destroy cancer cells in the lungs

In order to produce this immune response to lung tumors, Steinmetz's laboratory designed nanoparticles made of cowpea mosaic virus, targeting a protein in the lung

Steinmetz said: "In order for our immunotherapy to work in the case of lung metastasis, we need to target nanoparticles to the lungs

A student in the Steinmetz laboratory and one of the first authors of the paper, Dr.

To prepare the nanoparticles, the researchers cultivated black-eyed pea plants in the laboratory, infected them with the cowpea mosaic virus, and harvested the virus in the form of spherical nanoparticles

Researchers conducted prevention and treatment research

In the treatment study, the researchers applied nanoparticles to mice with metastatic lung tumors

The researchers pointed out that these results are remarkable in that they show effectiveness against extremely aggressive cancer cell lines

Steinmetz envisions that this treatment is particularly useful for patients after tumors have been removed

Before new treatments reach that stage, researchers need to do more detailed immunotoxicity and pharmacological studies

"S100A9-Targeted Cowpea Mosaic Virus as a Prophylactic and Therapeutic Immunotherapy against Metastatic Breast Cancer and Melanoma" by Young Hun Chung, Jooneon Park, Hui Cai and Nicole F.