A new study reveals how COVID-19 may trigger immune responses that can shrink cancer tumors.

In general, viruses cannot be linked with positive outcomes for health, However, the coronavirus era has altered many approaches of physicians and they noticed an unusual case. Patients who were severely unwell with COVID-19 saw tumors reduce in size, or grow at a much slower rate. This curiosity aroused medical scientists’ interest in whether COVID-19 might provide a possible methodology for killing cancer cells (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
New Research Sheds Light on a Surprising Connection Between COVID-19 and Cancer Regression

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How COVID-19 Impacts the Immune System

Thoracic surgery head at Northwestern University, Dr. Ankit Bharat, and his team aligned to undertake the research to unveil how COVID-19 seemed to slow down cancer. It was carried out by the University of California/San Francisco team and their Journal of Clinical Investigation study centered on the behaviour of monocyte.
Normally, monocytes circulate in the bloodstream searching for foreign bodies such as bacteria, or signs of cancer. However, cancer cells may sometimes capture these monocytes and use them to wall this structure, an immunological barrier against detection or invasion by cytotoxic cells.

The researchers also found that when SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, enters such monocytes, it becomes unexpected the other way around. Instead of shielding the cancer, the virus redirects monocytes into the side of the immune system in a fight with the tumor. This new role of monocytes might be a better virus-mediated strategy for cancer treatment.

Potential for New Cancer Treatment

Based on this discovery, Dr Bharat and his team discovered a compound called Muramyl dipeptide, which functions basically like the COVID-19 virus on Monocytes. In animal models, MDP resulted in up to 70% decrease in tumor size in mice bearing different types of human cancer including breast, colon, lung, and melanoma tumors.
This discovery has great prospects for cancer therapy. If future animal and clinical trials by other researchers also obtain similar findings in humans, MDP or other molecules of the same type might provide partial remote-control treatment for cancers that do not have to employ T-cell therapies in the future.

Some Distinctions from Conventional Approach Toward Cancer

Perhaps, the most exciting feature of this discovery is that the virus transforms monocytes in a way that is not influenced by T-cell intervention that forms the basis of current and advanced cancer treatment regimens. T-cell therapies are beneficial and can be used; however, they are associated with challenges because tumors change and develop ways of escaping T-cell-directed attacks. Unlike Dr. Bharat’s finding, where a monocyte-driven mechanism ‘hijacks’ the cancer cells and steers them directly towards destruction, without involving T-cells at all, it could suggest new treatments for cancer patients especially those who have exhausted all possibilities of treatment.

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However, these findings suggest much more work needs to be done to investigate the potential of this method. Dr. F Bharat’s team is underway to understand which immune response-associated conditions like COVID-19 or transplant recipients elicit such a change in monocytes. Notably, other RNA viruses such as influenza A and human Para influenza viruses, did not generate such monocytes, indicating that the response might be exclusive to SARS-CoV-2.

While there are a lot of therapeutic research going on, the potentiality for uncovering the body’s natural immune system’s ability to fight cancer, and give hope to patients with advanced or resistant types of cancer is a strong possibility.

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If the immune system can be reprogrammed as the researchers found, then we now have a potent new weapon against cancer in development. This approach appears to be bringing a new paradigm in cancer treatment that may provide hope to millions of patients at large as more scientific evidence is discovered.

Reference:

1. New Research Sheds Light on a Surprising Connection Between COVID-19 and Cancer Regression – (https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2024/11/18/new-research-sheds-light-on-a-surprising-connection-between-covid-19-and-cancer-regression/)

Source-Medindia