Vesicular stomatitis virus as a flexible platform for oncolytic virotherapy against cancer.
Oncolytic virus (OV) therapy is an emerging anti-cancer approach that utilizes viruses to preferentially infect and kill cancer cells, while not harming healthy cells. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a prototypic non-segmented, negative-strand RNA virus with inherent OV qualities. Antiviral responses induced by type I interferon pathways are believed to be impaired in most cancer cells, making them more susceptible to VSV than normal cells. Several other factors make VSV a promising OV candidate for clinical use, including its well-studied biology, a small, easily manipulated genome, relative independence of a receptor or cell cycle, cytoplasmic replication without risk of host-cell transformation, and lack of pre-existing immunity in humans. Moreover, various VSV-based recombinant viruses have been engineered via reverse genetics to improve oncoselectivity, safety, oncotoxicity and stimulation of tumour-specific immunity. Alternative delivery methods are also being studied to minimize premature immune clearance of VSV. OV treatment as a monotherapy is being explored, although many studies have employed VSV in combination with radiotherapy, chemotherapy or other OVs. Preclinical studies with various cancers have demonstrated that VSV is a promising OV; as a result, a human clinical trial using VSV is currently in progress.
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
Eric
E
Hastie
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
Valery Z
VZ
Grdzelishvili
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D050130:Oncolytic Virotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D050504:Oncolytic Viruses / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D018116:Vesiculovirus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology