AU researchers study new canine lymphoma treatment

AUBURN, AL -11/14/06 - Auburn University veterinary researchers  received a $1.4-million National Cancer Institute grant to study targeted gene therapy for lymphoma, a project that could change the treatment regimens for dogs and humans.

Dr. Bruce Smith of the College of Veterinary Medicine's Scott-Ritchey Research Center is leading an interdisciplinary team that will administer a genetically altered, non-replicating virus to lymphoma-affected dogs, followed by a drug that seeks out and kills the virus-infected cancer cells.

“Gene therapy is becoming more common in medical research, but what makes Auburn's research unique is that we are modifying the virus to target, or specifically infect, the lymphoma tumor cell,” Smith says. “We have also altered the virus so that it encodes a protein, which, when it comes in contact with the drug, converts the drug into a toxic substance and that toxin kills the lymphoma cell.”

The grant from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, covers five years at Auburn, including two years of laboratory work developing gene vectors and testing them on cells, followed by three years of clinical trials with dogs diagnosed with lymphoma.