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Northwestern study links COVID-19 RNA to cancer-fighting cells

By FOX 32 News
Published  November 15, 2024 5:27pm CST
Cancer
FOX 32 Chicago

COVID-19 research sparks hope for new cancer treatments

New research from Northwestern University shows a surprise connection between COVID-19 and cancer regression.

The Brief

    • Northwestern University researchers discovered a link between COVID-19 RNA and the activation of cancer-fighting immune cells.
    • The findings stemmed from observations of cancer regression in some patients with severe COVID-19.
    • The study could lead to innovative therapies targeting cancers that are currently hard to treat.

CHICAGO - New research from Northwestern University shows a surprise connection between COVID-19 and cancer regression.

Researchers found the RNA from the virus triggers a unique type of immune cell with anti-cancer fighting abilities. They say this new information opens the door for new research and a way to treat cancer.

Doctors say this research was inspired by a trend they noticed during the pandemic.

"Some patients who had stage four cancer, when they develop severe COVID, we found that some of their cancer sites or the cancer in several sites shrunk," said Dr. Ankit Bharat.

So, researchers at Northwestern started their journey to figure out why this might be happening. They discovered when someone gets badly infected with COVID, the virus can actually enter the bloodstream, shedding its RNA. That gets circulated and becomes a very common immune cell called monocytes.

"They convert these monocytes into friendly cells. Basically, they convert them into cells that protect those cancer cells against second invasion by the immune system of the host. So what we found was that the RNA of the COVID virus could convert these monocytes into not those cancer-friendly cells, but cancer-fighting cells," said Bharat.

The team is hoping that with more research, they can create therapies aimed at these specific cells to tackle cancers that are tough to handle right now.