Moroccan Scientist Pioneers Groundbreaking Cancer Treatment Using Modified Viruses

The traditional protocols used in the treatment of cancer have always given unsatisfactory results to patients suffering from the disease of the century. Chemotherapy, hormone therapy or radiotherapy all have an efficiency rate of less than 10%, with an increased risk of major side effects and long-term immune deficiency.

A new treatment, in the clinical trial phase, allows genetically modifying bacterial viruses in order to attack cancer cells. Called "bacteriophages" or "bacterial viruses", these viruses are encoded to eliminate all strains of tumor cells within a year, including aggressive and deadly brain tumors.

Head of a gene therapy team and director of doctoral studies in medicine, neuroscience and mental health at the prestigious Imperial College London, Professor Amin Hajitou told MAP that these bacterial viruses "are nanoparticles 880 nanometers long that exist everywhere, even in our stomachs and intestines", and that far from being virulent, they protect us against the bacteria where they live.

Launched under the name "viro-therapy", the process, which has been praised by the newspaper "The Evening Standard" and the scientific journal "The New Scientist", is the subject of in-depth studies by the professor’s research team, particularly on incurable brain tumors.

90% of patients diagnosed with a brain tumor die within five years of cancer detection. The failures of conventional treatments are caused by the inadequacy of the administered dose, poor targeting and the blood-brain barrier that protects our brain.

The effectiveness of bacterial viruses is mainly due to their natural ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, spare healthy cells, and attach to the receptors of malignant tumor cells, thus causing cytolysis through the production of a toxic protein.