A cheap new cancer treatment made from a pea plant virus is now being tested

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Scientists at the University of California San Diego are currently making test cases on something that'll bring an affordable solution to one of our biggest diseases problems, Cancer.

They're running the test on a virus from black eyed pea plants and this might just be able to help our body fight cancer more efficiently but the great part is that its cheap to make, it has already shown promise in the early tests and might become a new kind of cancer treatment.

The virus is called the cowpea mosaic virus, CPMV for short. This virus normally infects pea plants but it poses no threat to people. When the researchers successfully turn them into tiny particles, these nanoparticles is able to trigger the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells, that's the trick and that's the way it helps.

They did a test on mice and it turns out, the treatment helped the immune system destroy tumors. However new tumor would grow but the treatment actually fought the new ones too.

It's no question on why this matters, because cancer treatment is quite expensive so seeking affordable ways is a blessing to humanity.

The scientists can grow this virus in peas using molecular farming, which is low cost and also scalable. The era where treatment of cancer becomes more affordable is upon us and that would change the world for the better.

What makes this even more effective is that the virus activates both the body’s general defenses and the targeted defenses to fight cancer and stop it from returning. Some patients get cancer treatment, see positive results but years later, have the cancer return, so a treatment that fights back is very much needed.

It also works in many cancer types, against colon, ovarian, melanoma and breast cancers and even stopped tumors from coming back after surgery.

The research is now entering the first stages of clinical trials on people, after they had those very encouraging lab results.

So instead of using expensive chemicals or complex treatments, scientists resort to the natural remedies.

The process is pretty much this, they first grow pea plants, infect them with CPMV, harvest the virus and make particles that train the immune system to fight cancer.

After human trials go on successfully, it could become a widely available new option for cancer care and since it’s cheap to make, it could be especially important for parts of the world where expensive therapies are hard to access or purchase. That's some good news right there.

Screenshot of pea plant from YouTube