Zika virus vaccine emerges as an unlikely hero in battling brain cancer

 Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) have developed a new approach using the Zika virus to destroy brain cancer cells and inhibit tumor growth, while sparing healthy cells. Using Zika virus vaccine candidates developed at Duke-NUS, the team discovered how these strains target rapidly proliferating cells over mature cells—making them an ideal option to target fast-growing cancerous cells in the adult brain.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, potentially offer a new treatment alternative for brain cancer patients who currently have a poor prognosis.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common malignant brain cancer, with more than 300,000 patients diagnosed annually worldwide. Survival rates for such patients are poor (around 15 months), mainly due to high incidence of tumor recurrence and limited treatment options. For such patients, oncolytic virotherapy—or the use of engineered viruses to infect and kill cancer cells—may address the current therapeutic challenges.

Zika virus is one such option in early development. The Duke-NUS team used Zika virus live-attenuated vaccine (ZIKV-LAV) strains, which are "weakened" viruses with limited ability to infect healthy cells but can still grow rapidly and spread within a tumor mass.

"We selected Zika virus because it naturally infects rapidly multiplying cells in the brain, allowing us to reach cancer cells that are traditionally difficult to target. Our ZIKV-LAV strains also replicate themselves in brain cancer cells, making this a living therapy that can spread and attack neighboring diseased cells," said Dr. Carla Bianca Luena Victorio, first author of the paper and Senior Research Fellow at the Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Research Program at Duke-NUS.

Dr. Victorio and the team determined that ZIKV-LAV strains were highly effective in infecting cancer cells as these viruses bind to proteins that are present in high levels only in cancer cells and not in healthy cells. Upon infecting a cancer cell, these virus strains hijack the cell's resources to reproduce, ultimately killing the cell.

As the cancer cell's protective membrane ruptures upon death, it releases its contents, including virus progeny that can infect and kill neighboring cancer cells. In addition, some cellular proteins released from the infected cells can activate an immune response to further inhibit tumor growth.

From right, Assistant Professor Ann-Marie Chacko, Assistant Professor Alfred Sun, Dr Carla Bianca Luena Victorio and Professor Ooi Eng Eong with a culture of their Zika vaccine strains. Credit: Duke-NUS Medical School

Through their experiments, the team observed that infection from ZIKV-LAV strains caused 65% to 90% of glioblastoma multiforme tumor cells to die. While the ZIKV-LAV strains also infected 9% to 20% of cells from blood vessels in the brain, the infection did not kill these healthy cells. In contrast, the original parent Zika virus strain killed up to 50% of healthy brain cells.

The scientists also discovered that the ZIKV-LAV strains were not able to reproduce well even when they managed to infect healthy cells. The amount of virus measured in healthy brain cells infected with ZIKV-LAV was only 0.36 to 9 times higher than before infection. In contrast, the amount of virus in brain cancer cells infected with ZIKV-LAV was 100 to a billion times higher than before infection. This further illustrates that conditions in cancer cells are significantly more conducive for virus reproduction than in normal cells.

"Since the Zika virus outbreak in 2016, understandably, there has been fear about the nature of the virus and its devastating effects. Through our work, we hope to present the Zika virus in a new light by highlighting its potential to kill cancer cells. When a live virus is attenuated, such that it is safe and effective to fight infectious diseases, it can be beneficial to human health—not just as a vaccine but also as a potent tumor-eradicating agent," said Assistant Professor Ann-Marie Chacko from Duke-NUS' Cancer & Stem Cell Biology Research Program. She is also the senior author of the paper.

The live attenuated virus strains were originally developed as a vaccine by Professor Ooi Eng Eong's group from Duke-NUS' Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Program. As a control, the virus strains were also tested on brain neurons or nerve cells that had been cultivated from human stem cells by Assistant Professor Alfred Sun's team from the Neuroscience & Behavioral Disorders Research Program in Duke-NUS. This provides a reliable screening tool to assess the safety and efficacy of using the virus as therapy in human cells.

Asst Prof Chacko's group is improving these and other Zika virus strains to increase their potency in killing not only brain cancer cells, but other types of cancer cells as well, while making them safer for use in patients. They are also modifying the virus so it can be imaged non-invasively after it has been injected into a patient. This will allow doctors to monitor where the virus goes in the patient and how long it is functional in the tumor.

To this end, the group is exploring commercializing their virus strains as both a Zika vaccine and treatment for brain cancer, and potentially other cancers, such as ovarian cancer.

Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, said, "This is a sterling example of how different research programs within the School come together to tap their various expertise to advance medical knowledge and improve patients' lives. The team's valuable insights may one day translate into a new treatment option to control tumor growth or even, offer a cure for cancer."

More information: Carla Bianca Luena Victorio et al, Repurposing of Zika virus live-attenuated vaccine (ZIKV-LAV) strains as oncolytic viruses targeting human glioblastoma multiforme cells, Journal of Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12967-024-04930-4

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-zika-virus-vaccine-emerges-hero.html

'Senate passes bill to compensate more Americans exposed to radiation'

 More Americans exposed to radiation caused by the government would be compensated under a bill that passed the U.S. Senate Thursday.

The bipartisan legislation, which would cost an estimated $50 billion, would expand the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include more people who believe that radiation exposure caused illnesses such as cancer. The bill passed the Senate 69-30, but its prospects in the House are uncertain, the Associated Press reported.

If the measure does pass the House, the White House indicated that President Joe Biden would sign it into law.

"The President believes we have a solemn obligation to address toxic exposure, especially among those who have been placed in harm's way by the government's actions," the White House said in a statement.

In 2022, Biden signed an executive order extending RECA for two years, but that extension expires in June. The new bill would extend the law for five years and expand coverage to include people in Missouri as well as Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alaska and Guam.

One of the areas where nuclear waste has seeped into nearby bodies of water is near St. Louis: Uranium processing there played a pivotal part in developing the nuclear weapons that helped end World War II. Eighty years later, the region is still dealing with contamination at several sites, the AP reported.

"I am a two-time breast cancer survivor," said Missouri Rep. Chantelle Nickson-Clark, a Democrat who represents Florissant, an area that sits along the St. Louis creek that was contaminated by nuclear waste in the 1960s.

"I lost my mother to breast cancer, an aunt to breast cancer. Two cousins that are breast cancer survivors, a nephew that had a cancerous brain tumor and other genetic mutation deficiencies in my family," she told the AP. "I'm here to represent a community that has been underserved, undervalued, underrepresented and unheard."

Advocates have been fighting for years to expand the program to include more sites in the United States, the AP reported. In New Mexico, residents living near the spot where the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945—the top-secret Manhattan Project—were not warned of the radiological dangers and didn't realize that an atomic blast was the source of the ash that rained down upon them after the explosion.

"You know, we are ground zero," Tina Cordova, a cancer survivor from New Mexico, told the AP. "We're where it all started. The origins of the whole nuclear program are in New Mexico, and we were the first people exposed to radiation as a result of an atomic bomb and to be left out for 79 years is just truly unacceptable."

"People have been waiting for justice for far too long, and it's just simply time to do the right thing," she said.

Other advocates for the bill said it represents hope for them and their families as they struggle with medical costs.

Christen Commuso, who works for the advocacy group Missouri Coalition for the Environment, told the AP she has dealt with many health issues, including thyroid cancer, and has had to ration her care at times because it is so costly.

"It's not about putting money in my pocket," Commuso said. "It's about providing me the ability to get the care that I deserve and need."

More information: The Health Resources and Services Administration has more on radiation exposure.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-senate-bill-compensate-americans-exposed.html

Blinken talks to Kenyan president about Haiti crisis, says State Dept

 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Kenyan President William Ruto about the Haiti crisis and the two men underscored their commitment to a multinational security mission to restore order, the State Department said on Saturday.

Haiti entered a state of emergency last Sunday after fighting escalated while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Nairobi seeking a deal for the long-delayed U.N.-backed mission.

Kenya announced last year it would lead the force but months of domestic legal wrangling have effectively placed the mission on hold.

In a statement, the State Department said Blinken and Ruto "underscored unwavering commitment to the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission".

It gave no other details of the talks and did not say when the conversation took place.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Blinken-talks-to-Kenyan-president-about-Haiti-crisis-says-State-Dept-46136088/

Biden makes contradictory comments on Gaza 'red line' in MSNBC interview

 U.S. President Joe Biden said in an MSNBC interview on Saturday that Israel's threatened invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would be his "red line" for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but then immediately backtracked, saying there was no red line and "I'm never going to leave Israel."

In a somewhat contradictory exchange with his interviewer, Biden said "they cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after" Hamas militants.

Biden and his aides have urged Netanyahu in strong terms not to launch a major offensive in Rafah until Israel crafts a plan for mass evacuation of civilians from the last area of Gaza it has not yet invaded with ground forces. More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are sheltering in the Rafah area.

"There's other ways to deal, to get to, to deal with ... the trauma caused by Hamas," Biden said, referring to the Islamist group's Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/currency/EURO-ISRAELI-NEW-SHEKEL-E-60037304/news/Biden-makes-contradictory-comments-on-Gaza-red-line-in-MSNBC-interview-46136124/

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed no data when deciding in 2023 to keep its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said on May 1, 2023, that the end of many other federal mandates “will not impact current policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

He said the mandate was remaining for VA health care personnel “to ensure the safety of veterans and our colleagues.”

Mr. McDonough did not cite any studies or other data. A VA spokesperson declined to provide any data that was reviewed when deciding not to rescind the mandate. The Epoch Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act for “all documents outlining which data was relied upon when establishing the mandate when deciding to keep the mandate in place.”

The agency searched for such data and did not find any.

“The VA does not even attempt to justify its policies with science, because it can’t,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

“The VA just trusts that the process and cost of challenging its unfounded policies is so onerous, most people are dissuaded from even trying,” she added.

The VA’s mandate remains in place to this day.

The VA’s website claims that vaccines “help protect you from getting severe illness” and “offer good protection against most COVID-19 variants,” pointing in part to observational data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that estimate the vaccines provide poor protection against symptomatic infection and transient shielding against hospitalization.

There have also been increasing concerns among outside scientists about confirmed side effects like heart inflammation—the VA hid a safety signal it detected for the inflammation—and possible side effects such as tinnitus, which shift the benefit-risk calculus.

President Joe Biden imposed a slate of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021. The VA was the first federal agency to implement a mandate.

President Biden rescinded the mandates in May 2023, citing a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. His administration maintains the choice to require vaccines was the right one and saved lives.

“Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” the White House said.

Some experts said requiring vaccination meant many younger people were forced to get a vaccine despite the risks potentially outweighing the benefits, leaving fewer doses for older adults.

“By mandating the vaccines to younger people and those with natural immunity from having had COVID, older people in the U.S. and other countries did not have access to them, and many people might have died because of that,” Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times previously.

The VA was one of just a handful of agencies to keep its mandate in place following the removal of many federal mandates.

“At this time, the vaccine requirement will remain in effect for VA health care personnel, including VA psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, peer specialists, medical support assistants, engineers, housekeepers, and other clinical, administrative, and infrastructure support employees,” Mr. McDonough wrote to VA employees at the time.

“This also includes VA volunteers and contractors. Effectively, this means that any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employee, volunteer, or contractor who works in VHA facilities, visits VHA facilities, or provides direct care to those we serve will still be subject to the vaccine requirement at this time,” he said. “We continue to monitor and discuss this requirement, and we will provide more information about the vaccination requirements for VA health care employees soon. As always, we will process requests for vaccination exceptions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.”

The version of the shots cleared in the fall of 2022, and available through the fall of 2023, did not have any clinical trial data supporting them.

A new version was approved in the fall of 2023 because there were indications that the shots not only offered temporary protection but also that the level of protection was lower than what was observed during earlier stages of the pandemic.

Ms. Manookian, whose group has challenged several of the federal mandates, said that the mandate “illustrates the dangers of the administrative state and how these federal agencies have become a law unto themselves.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/veterans-affairs-kept-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-place-without-evidence

China Plans $27BN 'Big Fund' To Counter US' Tech War

 China is preparing to raise billions of dollars for its largest-ever semiconductor fund, aiming to fast-track the advancement of cutting-edge technologies in response to Washington's worsening trade and tech war. 

According to Bloomberg, China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund is pooling capital from local governments, their investment arms, and state-owned enterprises. Sources familiar with the situation said the fund is expected to collect more than 200 billion yuan, or $27 billion. 

Referred to as the "Big Fund," the state-backed entity will help finance several pools of capital managed by other general partners under a "fund of funds" structure to increase deal sourcing and investment strategies to boost semiconductors and artificial intelligence investments. This comes as the Biden administration prepares to escalate technology trade curbs. 

The people also said negotiations about the fundraising are progressing and subject to change, and it could take months to finalize. 

Bloomberg pointed out that Big Fund will assist domestic companies, such as Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, in becoming less reliant on advanced processors and semiconductor equipment from the US or Europe. 

"Beijing's goal now is to pool valuable capital across the country for major projects, a key element in President Xi Jinping's "whole nation" approach," according to the source.

China's drive towards self-reliance follows the US and its allies, such as the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, ratcheting up trade restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology over the last year.

And just how reliant is Huawei on the US? 

In a separate Bloomberg report earlier today, it was revealed that Huawei and SMIC relied on US technology to produce advanced 7-nanometer chips for the Mate 60 Pro released last year. 

This suggests that China still can't entirely replace some foreign components from its most advanced chips. 

The Big Fund is a clear move by Beijing to increase technological self-sufficiency from the West. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is spending tens of billions of dollars to boost the US semiconductor industry and reduce its reliance on China. 

All this simply reinforces the global shift to a multi-polar state.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-plans-27bln-big-fund-counter-us-tech-war

US says temporary port for Gaza aid to take 'several weeks'

 Although the massive U.S. military operation will involve both soldiers and sailors, the U.S. military will not be deploying troops ashore, even temporarily to anchor the dock to the beach, said Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-says-temporary-port-gaza-234321404.html