From a terribly destructive virus science has found a silver lining. While I normally am intrigued by science that occurs above the exosphere, I find this to be kinda awesome.
To understand the dichotomy, let’s review the effects of Zika.
• Zika infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects and is associated with other pregnancy problems.
• Several countries that have experienced Zika outbreaks recently have reported increases in people who have Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
• Current CDC research suggests that GBS is strongly associated with Zika; however, only a small proportion of people with recent Zika virus infection get GBS.
• The birth defects are tremendous –
o from Severe microcephaly where the skull has partially collapsed or Decreased brain tissue with a specific pattern of brain damage or Damage (i.e., scarring, pigment changes) to the back of the eye
o Joints with limited range of motion, such as clubfoot
o Too much muscle tone restricting body movement soon after birth
But research has shown a benefit. It shows that the virus is able to selectively kill previously hard to kill (or treat) cancer cells in adult brains.
With fully grown mice it was found that Zika injections were able to select and shrink the aggressive tumors, leaving the healthy brain cells alone. That is something we have had a problem with, killing the disease but not the host.
A report in the Journal of experimental medicine goes into more detail; explaining that human trials are a bit off, but none the less, potentially it could be injected into the brain at the time of surgery to remove the tumors.
It actually has been tested on human cells using donated brain tissue and has shown great promise.
It is unfortunate that it is only in adult brains. Apparently the brain of a baby is very different with a different sort of stem cell present.
Basically, something so destructive may be able to save lives…ahhhh the ying and yang of things!
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