Which Virus is Most Effective at Killing Cancer Cells?
Solving Kids’ Cancer developed a novel program to harness cutting-edge technology to identify more promising viruses.
Project Title: Oncolytic Virus Development Program for Neuroblastoma
Researcher: David Stojdl, PhD
Institution: Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Study Type: Preclinical
Status: Completed
There are types of viruses that have the potential to kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. For over 100 years, scientists have reported numerous cases of cancers that were reduced or disappeared after patients contracted certain viruses. Solving Kids’ Cancer developed a novel program to harness cutting-edge technology to identify more promising viruses. In this project, researchers screened a variety of wild-type rhabdoviruses and found that a modified virus known as Maraba MG1 was the most effective in killing neuroblastoma. Maraba MG1 was tested in 11 neuroblastoma cell lines grown from patients, including isolated neuroblastoma cancer stem cells (tumor-initiating cells), which were identified in previous research projects by Solving Kids’ Cancer.