New Vaccine Strategy Targets Tumor Growth Factors With Gene Therapy.

2001 OCT 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Using gene therapy, researchers have immunized mice against a major growth factor responsible for tumor growth.

Researchers in China at Sichuan University - Huai Medical School have developed a gene therapy vector consisting of plasmid DNA encoding for Xenopus homologous vascular endothelial growth factor (XVEGF-p) that targets tumor angiogenesis in mice. The use of xenogeneic homologous genes may hold the key for preventing and treating a number of human cancers, the research group says.

"We found that immunogene tumor therapy with a vaccine based on XVEGF was effective at …