Researchers have fingered a virus as the culprit behind a bone marrow tumor called multiple myeloma. Although viruses have been linked to other cancers, the modus operandi of it - sarcoma-associated herpesvirus sarcoma (KSHV) - is unusual: The virus appears to work behind the scenes as the puppet master cell, triggering tumor growth in neighboring countries cells. The discovery, published in tomorrow's issue Science * could guide researchers toward new therapies for multiple myeloma, which strikes 13,000 people each year in the US alone and usually kills its victims within 3 years.
KSHV is already suspected as the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer that affects many AIDS patients. But unlike malignant cell sarcoma and other cancers assumed to be caused by viruses, multiple myeloma cells - derived from antibody producing plasma cells in the bone marrow - unnecessary appear to be directly infected. Instead, a research team led by James Berenson oncologists and Matthew Rettig of Veterans Affairs Medical Center West Los Angeles found evidence that KSHV is hiding in the adjacent dendritic cells, a subset of macrophages found in the microenvironment bone marrow.
In these cells, the virus seems to handle its own version of a human protein called interleukin-6 (IL-6) which is known to stimulate the growth of myeloma cells. This, the researchers suggest, is what propels the uncontrolled growth of myeloma tumors, or as Berenson describes, "The soil, the dendritic cell, is to put a lot of fertilizer, which makes the seed, the tumor cell, germinate. "This kind of remote control, said Yuan Chang, who studies KSHV at Columbia University in New York, is a" new mechanism "for the virally caused cancer." This is really exciting, if [the authors] are right. "
Drugs to block IL-6 could be a therapeutic avenue and Berenson also suggests that it might be possible to develop therapies that specifically target the virus-infected dendritic cells themselves. Attacking the virus with drugs or a vaccine could avert multiple myeloma full in about 1 million people who have been diagnosed with an apparent precursor condition called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. others who would benefit are AIDS patients , particularly gay men, who have a high risk of being infected with KSHV and get Kaposi's sarcoma.
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