Preparing to make a presentation at Parliament today are
leading young University of Otago researchers (from left)
Dr Jacob Edmond, Dr Mikkel Andersen, Dr Alex McLellan, Dr
Julia Horsfield, Dr Christine Jasoni, Dr Sarah Young and Dr
Simone Celine Marshall. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
A powerful new vaccine therapy for colorectal cancer is
likely to emerge from "highly promising" University of Otago
research, which is moving closer to human clinical trials.
This smart form of therapy uses harmless viral shells derived
from rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus to deliver immunising
tumour proteins.
The same approach could also be applied to a wide range of
human cancers, researchers say.
This is one of several cutting-edge Otago research projects
involving sciences, medical sciences and humanities which
will be outlined to parliamentarians, senior ministry
officials and scientists in a briefing at Parliament this
evening.
The projects are being led by members of the O-Zone group of
award-winning young Otago University scholars.
Dr Sarah Young, an immunologist in the university pathology
department, yesterday outlined her cancer-related research,
involving virus-like particles (VLP), at a meeting of the
group.
"It's very promising," she said in an interview.
"This therapy is like gold in our hands.
"It's worked as well if not better than any other therapy
I've ever seen."
When tumours were induced in mice they usually lived no
longer than 40 days.
By contrast, 60% of mice with tumours which had later
received a single therapeutic dose of the VLP vaccine lived
for 80 days or more, the Otago researchers found.
And about 80% of mice which received a single preventive dose
lived for 80 days or more after a tumour was induced.
Researchers had gained ethical approval to conduct "ex vivo"
laboratory tests this year, involving cells removed from the
body, to see if the VLP system would induce an enhanced
immune response in human cells.
It was hoped to move to human clinical trials relatively soon
- perhaps late next year.
All Dr Young's research, which was backed by Health Research
Council funding, was ultimately aimed at benefiting human
health.
"Benefiting people - that's hugely rewarding," she said.
The new vaccine approach offered potentially significant
advantages over some forms of traditional cancer therapy,
such as chemotherapy.
Inducing the immune system to attack only tumour cells meant
a much more selective approach, rather than some other
rapidly-dividing human cells, including in the stomach lining
and hair, also being affected.
Vaccines also induced a "memory" of tumour cells, enabling
the immune system to more readily counter any tumour
recurrence.
In 2008, Dr Young was awarded a $500,000 Sir Charles Hercus
Health Research Fellowship to support her research into
vaccines and therapies against colon, cervical and skin
cancers.
The O-Zone group convener is Dr Jacob Edmond, of Otago
University's English department.
The other researchers will make presentations on a wide range
of other research, including the effects of maternal obesity
on subsequent offspring, learning more about human
development by studying zebrafish and physics research on
aspects of the quantum world.
john.gibb@odt.co.nz
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