aNYa Blogs!

Now Showing .. HIV vs Cancer

Now, scientists at UCLA have a novel approach in the fight against cancer. Quite an interesting approach.. to use a virus to do the work of a drug .. sort of. It will be easier to understand if you recall your high school biology and remember how virii work. They search for host cells, make them their home and are frankly quite immune to any defense mechanism the cell itself may have.

The scientists added a new coat to a depleted HIV .. giving it a new target .. a molecule located on the surface of cancer cells. The virus effectively destroys this molecule and weakens the cancer cells defenses against traditional treatments like chemotherapy.