
New Drug Uses Herpes Virus to Fight Cancer - Mz
http://www.newsmax.com/t/health/article/699355
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yarp_001011
i don't know if this is "new" so much as it is newly approved. There are at
least two broad schools of thought in today's biotech discovery. The first is
to reverse-engineer chemicals or genetic sequences that are found in the
causal chain to contribute to certain diseases. Think synthetic estrogen. The
second is to find naturally occurring chemicals, proteins, etc that the body
already uses and re-purpose it. Think Bexion Cancer Therapeutics. This is of
the second variety, and those tend to be more promising in that the body
hasn't automatically rejected it outright. Coupled with the fact that the
problem with cancer is the cells won't die, and that herpes basically tears
the cells apart, and you've got a pretty intuitive thesis for this drug
development. Will keep waiting to see if cancer adapts to this treatment, and
whether the treatment spreads to infect other cells unwittingly. Always glad
to see steps toward cancer cures though.

