Matthias Gromeier

Dr. Matthias Gromeier is a Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke University Medical Center, who has developed a way to re-engineer a poliovirus to inspire the human immune system to kill cancer cells in a specific set of cancers. The re-engineered virus, called PVSRIPO, cannot replicate itself in normal cells, but can replicate itself in cancer cells that have an overabundance of the protein marker that the poliovirus targets.

PVSRIPO, which Gromeier engineered himself as a postdoc in the 1990s is thought to induce an anti-tumor immune response against the tumor. Phase I trials in glioblastoma (GBM, one of the most deadly brain cancers) results have been very promising. The traditional treatment against GBM, surgical resection followed by chemo usually gives rise to only a 12-month survival in patients; some patients treated with PVSRIPO are still alive, symptomless, 3.5 years after treatment. Only the worst cases of GBM that did not respond to any other treatments were enrolled in the trial. The lab is now testing the virus in other tumors, including breast, pancreas, and many others.

Other research has experimented with cancer treatments using viruses including HIV, smallpox, and measles. However, Dr. Gromeier noted that polio was the most ideal choice due to its ability to seep out and attach itself to a receptor that is found on the surface of the cells that make up nearly every kind of solid tumor. As Gromeier noted, "It’s almost as if polio had evolved for the purpose". Gromeier re-engineered the polio virus by removing a key genetic sequence. The virus can't survive this way, so he repaired the damaged with a harmless bit of cold virus. The new, modified virus, could no longer cause paralysis or death because it couldn't reproduce in normal cells. However, in a cancerous environment, this is still possible. In the process of replicating, the virus releases toxins that poison the cells, indicating cancer cells could be killed. Gromeier performed seven years of safety studies, which included tests on 39 monkeys, to show that the virus does not, in fact, cause polio. In 2011, the FDA approved a trial in humans.

Due in part to Dr. Gromeier's work, more than ten drugs that trigger the immune system have been approved, and they are significantly extending the lives of patients with cancers, including lung cancer and melanoma. Provided by Wikipedia