Zika vaccine yields promising results for treating glioblastoma

An international team of researchers have successfully deployed a Zika virus vaccine to target and kill human glioblastoma brain cancer stem cells, which had been transplanted into mice. In the study, published in mBio®, the team demonstrate that a live, attenuated version of the Zika virus could form the basis of a new treatment option for this fatal brain cancer. Glioblastoma is currently incurable because patients are reported to experience a high recurrence rate of their cancer even after standard treatments of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Researchers believe that this recurrence rate is due to glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs), which...