Grant of $1.3 Million to Support the Development of Rabbit Virus for Cancer Treatment

The Health Research Council of New Zealand had provided a $1.3 million grant to support the treatment, being developed by the Southern District Health Board Oncology Research Unit and the University of Otago Medical School.
The research is believed to refine the figures that have marked the Southland with maximum number of bowel cancers and aimed to draft policies to enhance the treatments along with a modified virus that had destroyed the rabbit population.
Chris Jackson, SDHB consultant Medical Oncologist while addressed a meeting of Freemasons and the public at the Southland Masonic Centre, on Tuesday, and notified that during the 1990s, the virus for rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) had decimated the rabbit population in New Zealand, particularly in the regions of Central Otago.
However, the latest treatment involves the mechanism of bioengineering in which the drained shell of the virus called virus-like particles (VLPs) is used to stimulate the body immune system against the cancer.
The involved attaching tumor-associated proteins to the VLP shell like "a tail" to stimulate the cancer immune response in order to target the terrible disease, cancer. "There's room for hope and a lot of room for optimism, but there's a need for a new direction”, he added further.

Sourced from here.