Links found between harmless viruses and Cancer

Source: physorg.com

We already know viruses like Human Papillomavirus, Epstein-Barr virus which cause cancer. Such viruses are called Oncogenic viruses. Now the bad news is that these viruses have company. Researchers have found out links between a group of viruses which are supposedly harmless to chromosomal instability and cancer.

Ok…now let us get some concepts clear here. What is chromosomal instability? It is a phenomenon where there is a continuous occurrence of novel chromosomal mutations at a rate higher than in normal cells. These mutations disrupt the stability of the cell and the cell tends to become malignant ie…become a cancer cell.

Lets come back to the news. The researchers have found out that these ‘harmless’ viruses tend to fuse groups of cells. This abrupt fusion creates massive chromosomal instability and over time, some of these cells become malignant as already stated before.

Researchers say that if they can identify and inactivate these viruses, cancer could be prevented. They are threading the “Prevention is better than cure” path which has been pretty successful lately with methods for immunization against Human Papillomavirus and Hepatitis B bringing out good results.

This research has been done at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.