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Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSMC) have identified an immunity pathway that could treat mammals against virus related cancers.

Cancers caused by viruses affects about 20 percent of human cancers. 

It was revealed in the study that oncogenic protein from virus associated with Kaposi's sarcoma could be destroyed by autophagy-related protein beclin 2. The protein was discovered earlier by Dr Beth Levine and team, Professor of Internal Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at UTSMC, according to Eurekalert.

Kaposi's sarcoma is found predominantly in patients that have extensively compromised immune system, such as those that have transplant-related immune system suppression and those with HIV infection.

The study findings was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Xiaonan Dong, an Instructor in Internal Medicine at UTSMC for Autophagy Research, noted that on top of human cancers, many other diseases are also related to chronic viral infection, DNA reported.

"We found that beclin 2 can promote the degradation of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), and thereby suppress its cancer-causing signaling," said Dong, according to Medical Express. 

The researchers noted that break-down of viral GPCR and decreased pro-tumorigenic signaling was higher in case of increased expression of beclin 2, while the decreased expression of beclin 2 increased pro-tumorigenic signaling and sustained levels of viral GPCR.

Levine noted that the study has given a deep insight on the protection mechanisms of our immune system against cancers and other diseases, which could be of great help in the development of anti-viral therapies.

Viruses that causes cancer in humans, referred to as viral oncogenesis,  are the Human papilloma viruses (HPVs), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8), Human T-lymphotrophic virus-1 (HTLV-1), and Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV). There are also viruses with uncertain or unproven links to cancer in humans, such as Simian virus 40 (SV40).