Covid proteins can infect and kill lung cancer cells, study finds

Breakthrough study suggests Covid could help in the battle against cancer, Mustafa Qadri writes

Researchers said there have been anecdotal cases of people with lung cancer whose conditions improved after being infected with Covid (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A modified Covid protein has been found to kill lung cancer cells, a potentially groundbreaking study has discovered.

Scientists used a modified version of the spike protein found in Covid cells - the part which binds to human cells and infects people - and found it killed cancer cells in mice as well as human cells in a petri dish.

Professor of neurology and lead investigator of the study, Kalipada Pahan said: “If these results are replicated in lung cancer patients, it would uncover a promising avenue of this devastating disease.”

The researchers at RUSH Medical College in Chicago said there have also been anecdotal cases of people with lung cancer whose conditions improved after being infected with Covid.

For the study, the team took a cloned version of the spike protein and exposed it to non-small cell lung cancer cells from humans in a petri dish.

When the protein was added, it killed the cancer cells.

The researchers tested the protein on mice with established lung cancer by spraying it up their noses every other day and gave another group of mice saline solution as a control.

After four weeks, they examined both groups of lung cancer mice and found the ones with the Covid spike had fewer and smaller tumours.

Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer and causes over 35,300 people in the UK each year. More than breast, bowel, bladder and cervical cancer combined.

It is the main cause of cancer-related deaths in the world and has a relatively low five-year survival rate.

The team’s study is published in the journal Cancers.