• Question: could you create a virus that targets only one specific type of cell, lets say you had a bunch of skin cells and among them only one cancer cell, could you have a virus that only targets/destroys the cancer cell?

    Asked by osmium456 to Aaron, Ananthi, Ashley, Christopher, Emma, Lea on 12 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Ananthi Ramachandran

      Ananthi Ramachandran answered on 12 Nov 2017:

      Cancer treatment is very complicated. Research is constantly being carried out to try and find a way of targeting only cancer cells! That’s what makes treatment of cancer so difficult. Your idea of a virus which targets a cancer cell is a brilliant idea. The questions that come immediately to my mind is which virus to use and how can we be sure that it doesn’t affect anything else?

    • Photo: Emma Stevenson

      Emma Stevenson answered on 12 Nov 2017:

      This is a great questions. I can’t go into details, but some of my former lab colleagues were actually working on something like this. It used a bacteria and not a virus, but the theory is the same. You’ve definitely got a great scientific mind, I really hope you’ll put it to good use in the future. Research needs young people like you!

    • Photo: Aaron Brown

      Aaron Brown answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      You sound like you have a brilliant scientific mind 🙂 And to be honest I’m really not sure as this isn’t really my area of research… maybe you could look into this one day

    • Photo: Christopher Richardson

      Christopher Richardson answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      You have asked the question that many researchers and scientists are asking themselves right now and are working on! The way you describe the virus killing the cell is very possible the problem we face there is finding something on the cancer cell that is different form all the other cells for the virus to recognize and attach to. Because the cancer cell is just one of your own cells that is mutating it looks the same as your normal cells to most viruses and drugs!
      There have been recent advances in the area of something called enzymes that are stuck to drugs, these enzymes can detect a chemical given off by cancer cells and moves to the cell and starts to try to enter it with the drug attached, when it gest inside the enzyme breaks down and the drug is activated and kills the cell from inside!

    • Photo: Ashley Otter

      Ashley Otter answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      Yep, this is a great question and very inquisitive! Lots of researchers around the world are trying to do the same, my modifying existing and non pathogenic viruses to be able to “infect” us and make us better by killing the bad cancerous cells. Be sure to venture into the world of science, we need minds like you in research 🙂

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