Scientists from Duke, March 11 -- NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) at Singapore have developed a new approach using the Zika virus to destroy brain cancer cells and inhibit tumour growth, while sparing healthy cells.

Using Zika virus vaccine candidates developed at Duke-NUS, the team discovered how these strains target rapidly proliferating cells over mature cells, making them an ideal option to target fast-growing cancerous cells in the adult brain.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, potentially offer a new treatment alternative for brain cancer patients who currently have a poor prognosis.

The team determined that ZIKV-LAV strains were highly effective in infecting cancer cells as these viruses bind to p...