title: Recombinant Poxvirus and the Tumor Microenvironment: Oncolysis, Immune Regulation and Immunization.
abstract: Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are being extensively studied for their potential roles in the development of cancer therapy regimens. In addition to their direct lytic effects, OVs can initiate and drive systemic antitumor immunity indirectly via release of tumor antigen, as well as by encoding and delivering immunostimulatory molecules. This combination makes them an effective platform for the development of immunotherapeutic strategies beyond their primary lytic function. Engineering the viruses to also express tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) allows them to simultaneously serve as therapeutic vaccines, targeting and amplifying an immune response to TAAs. Our group and others have shown that vaccinating intratumorally with a poxvirus that encodes TAAs, in addition to immune stimulatory molecules, can modulate the tumor microenvironment, overcome immune inhibitory pathways, and drive both local and systemic tumor specific immune responses.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2681, USA; sharpdw@cinj.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.affiliation: Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Department of Surgery, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2681, USA.
authors.forename: Edmund C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Lattime
keywords: GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor); TRICOM (triad of costimulatory molecules); immunotherapy; oncolytic viruses; poxvirus; tumor microenvironment; vaccinia