Scientists have discovered a potential new treatment for cancer.
Published in BioMed Central's BMC Cancer Journal, the research tracks the use of "artificial plasmid coding for the replicase genes of the Sindbis virus".
Sindbis is an alpha virus that contains on a single strand of RNA its genetic information, something that is replicated into a double strand upon infection.
This is then attacked by the body. Researchers have used this principle to target tumours in mice in a clinical laboratory - and have seen some effect.
Based at the University of Texas in Austin, the researchers saw tumours begin to regress after 25 days.
After 37 days, all tumours were either gone or had begun to shrink.
"In our study both highly immunogenic and poorly immunogenic tumours were receptive to treatment with an RNA replicase based plasmid. Our results suggested a novel approach to cancer molecular therapy," comments Professor Cui.
BMC Cancer is an open access journal, reviewed by peers, publishing research related to all aspects of the illness.
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