Viruses are known to cause harm to humans. But in recent findings, a particular kind of virus can be trained to destroy and kill the cancer cells.

The Professor Len Seymour's lab, at the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre, focused on a particular type of cancer-killing virus, the Enadenotucirev or "EnAd" for short. It has an unusual way of killing cancer cells, the study published in Molecular Therapy - Oncolytics.

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Arthur Dyer, a researcher in Professor Seymour's lab, along with his team placed a cell CCTV to catch the virus in killing the cancer cells. They used the human lung cancer cell and infected it with the trained virus to kill the cancer cells. The footage recorded in the normal light cell microscope captured the virus' movements every minute.

The cancers cells balloon up, blister, and die after they were infected with the EnAd virus - an unusual cell death. Normally, viruses need a hyperactive cell, so if the metabolism of the cancer cells has gone haywire they will be a perfect victim for EnAd.

Viruses naturally kill cancer cells. However, it also strikes the harmless cells. That's why EnAd has run through a tough training program to assure it will only infect the cancer cells, not healthy ones.

The normal cells were also exposed to EnAd to teach the virus a tough selection: to infect and destroy the cancer cells only. EnAd passed the laboratory examinations.

It is now being applied in an early clinical trial with a small number of people to find out if it is safe and can be used to a large number of people. Dyer and the research team wanted to deliver the virus using injection so it can instantly get into the bloodstream and reach the cells went on other parts of the body.