Researchers Have Identified a Virus That Attacks Human Cancer Cells

In an attempt to understand how the virus works, researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand discovered in 2017 that the virus binds to a receptor called ANTXR1, which is active in more than 60 percent of the cancers in humans. The researchers believe that the new discovery allows us to understand in depth how the immune system identifies the virus. They hypothesize that the area used by the virus to bind to the receptor converges with the region of the virus that the immune system antibodies identify and bind to. A thorough understanding of how the immune system antibodies identify the virus will help researchers make small changes in its structure so that it can continue its anticancer activity without the body fighting it. Such a move may be dangerous, as it will improve the virus’s ability to destroy cancer cells, but also produce a virus that is completely resistant to the immune system, and if it builds up mutations, it might become dangerous.

Source: www.healthfoodis.com