Thursday, October 09, 2008

Think warm, fuzzy thoughts . . .

From Science Daily, a report that the molecular structure of a recently-discovered 'Beneficial' virus has been solved. What's exciting is, this little booger infects just cancer cells, like those in small-cell lung cancer.

Scientists at Neotropix say that, in laboratory and animal studies, the virus demonstrates cancer-killing specificity that is 10,000 times higher than that seen in traditional chemotherapeutics, with no overt toxicity. The company has developed the "oncolytic" virus as an anti-cancer agent and is already conducting early phase clinical trials in patients with lung cancer.

A research team has solved the 3-D structure
of Seneca Valley Virus-001.
(Credit: Image courtesy of Scripps Research Institute)

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