UniSA team aims to end many cancers with viral technology

Researchers at the University of South Australia are looking for the Holy Grail of vaccines that would not only eliminate a range of chronic viral infections but up to a fifth of all cancers.

Led by Dr John Hayball, the team is focusing on the link between viral infections and the cancers they cause, including Papilloma, Hepatitis B and HIV.

“Twenty per cent of all cancers that exist are associated with infection,” Dr Hayball said.

“If we can eliminate those infections, there’s a real possibility of cutting the incidence of cancer by one fifth and obviously that’s a huge leap forward.

“We’re hoping to develop a viable platform technology that will form the basis of a vaccine that would not only prevent but could cure a range of chronic viruses even after they’ve become established in the body.

“That’s the ultimate goal of our research here at UniSA.”

Working alongside Associate Professor Michael Brown at the Hanson institute of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the team is already making steady progress, something Dr Hayball says can be attributed to taking proven technologies to the next level.

“At the moment there is a range of very effective vaccines that prevent the contraction of certain viruses, the classic being the Papilloma vaccine, which is extremely effective and no doubt will bring about a reduction in cervical cancer in the years to come,” he said.

“But this vaccine, like all vaccines today, can only protect you from getting the virus, once you’ve got it it’s too late.

“But if you could develop a vaccine for this virus that would kill it in the carriers, it would dramatically reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in carriers.

“We’re already seeking patents for research into making existing vaccine responses more durable, because what you really want from a vaccine is a one shot cure, you don’t want to be coming back for boosters your whole life.

“The technology the team is working on is similar to the immune responses shown by long-term carriers of HIV that never develop AIDS.

“HIV can’t be cured, but these long-term nonprogressors exhibit a unique immune response that contains the virus, essentially negating it.

“It’s these polyfunctional immune responses that we’re looking to trigger in the body to prevent, contain and kill any number of chronic infections and there’s a real potential for success in this field.

“We don’t do research that is only ever going to cure mice of diseases in a lab, we work with technologies we know have a strong chance of being approved for use in humans,” Dr Hayball said.

(Source: University of South Australia: March 2009)