ViruCure Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that develops NADAV, an oncolytic Newcastle disease virus (NDV) platform for the treatment of a wide range of cancer types.
The NADAV technology works through the highly selective, replicative, and safe oncolytic effect of NDV in humans. The proprietary NDV strain specifically targets cancerous cells and then replicates itself, creating progeny viruses, which then target and infect others nearby, as well as distal cancerous cells (metastases), throughout the body.
NADAV appears to work by causing cell death of the infected tumor cells and by triggering the host's immune response towards the cancerous cells by activating the anti-tumoral immune response. This oncolytic amplification effect is achieved with very low toxicity because NADAV specifically destroys the tumor cells and does not attack normal tissues. Furthermore, since NDV is an avian virus, it has not exhibited any pathological effects or severe illnesses in humans in over 40 years of research.
The initial targeted therapies for the platform are currently glioblastoma multiforme and lung cancer patients.
This proprietary NDV technology was developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.