Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Understanding the Relationship between Viruses and Cancer
Disease Discoveries

Understanding the Relationship between Viruses and Cancer

By Sarah PlumridgeMay 12, 2014
Share
Facebook Twitter Email
Kamonwan Pear Fish, a PhD/MPH student, is interested in how viruses have the potential to accelerate rates of cancer and hopes to find a way to develop targeted therapeutics that could treat tumors. 

 

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been associated with certain cancers, but the mechanisms of how the virus causes tumor growth is not yet understood.

Fascinated by the relationship between viral infection and cancer development, Kamonwan “Pear” Fish studies how a viral protein from EBV can disrupt cell function and speed up tumor growth. Fish, a PhD/MPH student in the Walter S. and Lucienne Driskill Graduate Training Program in Life Sciences, works in the lab of Richard M. Longnecker, PhD, Dan and Bertha Spear Research Professor, professor of Microbiology-Immunology and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Her research was recently published in Blood.

The Longnecker lab developed a mouse model to look at how one of the EBV viral proteins increases the activity of an oncogene, a gene that causes cancer. When there is an increase in expression of this type of gene, it leads to a faster multiplication of cells, which may turn into cancer cells.

“This model allows us to look at the biology of the virus and how it interacts with the host. We focus on studying one of the viral proteins and how it cooperates with a human oncogene,” explained Fish.

She observed how fast cells replicate in the absence and presence of the viral protein. She found that the protein and the oncogene together drive cell proliferation and contribute to early onset of a type of cancer called Burkitt lymphoma.

EBV infection can drive proliferation of infected cells. In healthy individuals the immune system can prevent uncontrolled cell replication caused by EBV. When people have compromised immune systems, such as patients infected with HIV or transplant patients who undergo immunosuppressive therapy, they lose the ability to regulate the expression of EBV proteins and, together with activation of oncogenes, can develop cancer.

“This particular viral protein is interesting because when it’s expressed by itself doesn’t cause much of a problem,” she said. “But when there is an increased activity of oncogene, they are like partners in crime and together create very fast tumor growth.”

This viral protein has been found in a number of EBV-associated cancers and Fish believes that this protein, when paired with different oncogenes, may cause different effects in different cancer types.

Moving forward, Fish would like to understand how this protein helps degrade the tumor suppressor and through her research hopes to figure out how to target this viral protein in EBV-associated cancer.

“If we could inhibit or intercept how the virus disrupts the cell physiology, then we would be able to find some novel target that could specifically treat EBV-associated malignances or cancers,” she said.

Cancer Microbiology Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Feinberg Investigators Identify How a Residential Neighborhood Can Impact Health

Sep 22, 2023
Sep 22, 2023

Robert Lamb, Renowned Expert on Influenza Virus, Dies at 72

Sep 22, 2023

Combination Immunotherapy Shows No Additional Benefit for Most Advanced Cancers

Sep 21, 2023

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Feinberg Investigators Identify How a Residential Neighborhood Can Impact Health

Sep 22, 2023

Robert Lamb, Renowned Expert on Influenza Virus, Dies at 72

Sep 22, 2023

Bethany Ekesa, Associate Director of SPARC, Honored with Jean E. Shedd University Citizenship Award

Sep 21, 2023

Combination Immunotherapy Shows No Additional Benefit for Most Advanced Cancers

Sep 21, 2023

Novel Intracellular Signaling Mechanisms Promote Melanoma Growth

Sep 21, 2023
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
20230914_NM461
20230914_NM644
20230914_NM345
20230914_NM444
20230914_NM464
20230914_NM520
20230914_NM673
20230914_NM641
20230914_NM612
20230914_NM608
20230914_NM602
20230914_NM597

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2023 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.