Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Dr Rob Ewing, University of Southampton
Award: £34,765.74
Awarded December 2020
Childhood brain tumours are amongst the most complicated and expensive cancers to treat. They are typically highly aggressive and invasive, and current treatment options are frequently unsuccessful with side-effects which can leave surviving patients with chronic long-term illnesses or disabilities.
Development of novel, less toxic and longer-term treatments are desperately needed. Members of our team recently discovered that the Zika virus could specifically infect and oncolyse (kill) aggressive childhood brain tumour cells, demonstrating its potential as an oncolytic virotherapy.
Employing viruses which specifically infect and destroy cancer cells without harming normal cells, oncolytic virotherapies generally have low toxicity with minimal side effects, and consequently are attractive treatments for childhood cancer. Whilst Zika infection can cause brain developmental defects in unborn babies, infection is generally well accepted by children following birth.
We aim to discover why certain types of childhood brain tumours are susceptible to Zika infection and how the proteins that Zika produces interact and control human proteins to kill the brain cancer cells.
Our project is a collaboration between the University of Southampton and the University of São Paulo where this discovery was initially made. Our comprehensive study will use powerful gene and protein expression techniques, which allow thousands of highly sensitive measurements, to decipher how Zika kills brain tumour cells.
Additionally, we will individually scrutinise the roles and therapeutic properties of the Zika viral proteins. In terms of a future therapy, our approach and anticipated results will aid us to (1) design Zika-based therapies and (2) understand which childhood brain tumours are best suited to the new therapy, thereby targeting the therapy to those patients who can benefit most. Importantly, our project will also advance knowledge of childhood brain tumour biology through extensive characterisation of unique and aggressive medulloblastoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour (ATRT) cell-lines.