Going antiviral in brain cancer

A Karolinska Institute-led team has shown that targeting cytomegalovirus and/or inhibiting COX-2 could help treat medulloblastoma, the most common type of pediatric brain tumor.¹ The research presents a repurposing opportunity for companies with compounds against the virus or the enzyme.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infects a large proportion of the population-usually asymptomatically-and the virus expresses multiple proteins that allow it to escape the host immune response.² The virus also infects more than 90% of glioblastoma, prostate, breast and colon tumors,^3-5 in which it is thought to promote tumor growth and possibly tumorigenesis...