Brain Tumor Immunology: Using the Myxoma Virus
This research focuses on understanding how viruses can be used to become perfect candidates in treating malignant glioma brain tumors. Malignant glioma is a primary brain tumor that can quickly spread particularly targeting healthy tissue. Researchers have realized that the myxoma virus has potential to be labeled as an oncolytic candidate. The myxoma virus causes myxomatosis in rabbits, a deadly disease that became a widespread epidemic in Australia. In order to be classified as a candidate the virus must be able to kill cancer cells. The main goal for this experiment is to help improve the permissiveness of the myxoma virus in brain tumors. Our plan is to increase the permissiveness of the mouse glioma cell line (GL261) in vivo because tumor cells differ in their permissiveness. This cell line is permissive in culture, but remains non-permissive in vivo. In vivo context, we will use brain slices in order to detect cell viability. We will also use these slices to test three different types of drugs that can help improve the permissiveness of tumor cells to infection by the myxoma virus in brain tumors. We expect to see in the microscope the pretreated mice with rapamycin and dexamethasone drugs display a bright red color in the tumor expressing a tomato red protein. We also believe that the drug cyclophosphamide will not work as effectively as the other drugs. Oncolytic virotherapy proposes numerous possibilities over other treatment options such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and anticancer drugs.
School:
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department:
Neuroscience
Research Advisor:
Edward Roy
Department of Research Advisor:
Pathology
Year of Publication:
2008