Inventive cancer cures:
Patrick Lee explores cancer-killing potentials of human reovirus and p53
While some viruses cause cancer, others have the ability to fight it. Dr. Patrick Lee made this groundbreaking discovery when experiments in his lab revealed that the common human reovirus infects and kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells. Now, as Cameron Chair in Basic Cancer Research at Dalhousie Medical School, he has found out how they do it.
Ironically, the cancer cell aids its own demise. “The cancer-cell environment lets the virus uncoat and start reproducing more quickly than it can in normal cells,” explains Dr. Lee, professor in the departments of Pathology and Microbiology & Immunology. “The cancer cell then enables the virus to produce more virus particles and release them more quickly to infect neighbouring cancer cells.” Knowing how reovirus infects cancer cells will help researchers develop more effective anti-cancer virus therapies in the future. Preclinical studies have already shown that reovirus can destroy cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, ovary and brain, as well as lymphoma and melanoma. Clinical trials are currently underway in the US and the UK.
Dr. Lee is also on the trail of a crucial tumour suppressor protein called p53. It prevents DNA-damaged cells from becoming cancerous. “Learning how p53 works and why it loses its protective function in cancer could well lead to a cure,” says Dr. Lee. He is pursuing his p53 studies using a gamma irradiator facility funded with the proceeds of the 2005 Molly Appeal. “The gamma irradiator allows us to damage DNA in an instant, to study the complex process that leads to cancer. We must understand the enemy to fight it!”
An internationally renowned cancer researcher, Dr. Lee joined Dalhousie Medical School in 2003 from the University of Calgary to become the first Cameron Chair in Basic Cancer Research. This research chair was funded through an outstanding $13 million bequest to the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation by the late Beatrice Hunter.