A cautionary note on the selectivity of oncolytic poxviruses

Oncolytic Virotherapy
Bingtao TangEdward J Roy

Abstract

Oncolytic viruses selectively infect cancer cells while avoiding infection of normal cells. Usually, selectivity is demonstrated by injecting a virus into tumor-bearing mice and observing infection and lysis of tumor cells without infection of other tissues. The general view is that this selectivity is due to tropisms of the virus. However, apparent selectivity could be due to accessibility. For example, intravenously injected virus may not gain access to cells within the central nervous system (CNS) because of the blood-brain barrier. We tested the CNS safety of two oncolytic poxviruses that have been demonstrated to be safe for treatment of peripheral tumors (vaccinia virus vvDD-IL15-Rα and myxoma virus vMyx-IL15Rα-tdTr). Two poxviruses were tested for selectivity in vitro and in vivo. Both viruses infected glioma cells in vitro. In vivo, both viruses infected glioma cells and did not infect neurons when injected into a tumor or into the normal striatum. However, viral gene expression was observed in ependymal cells lining the ventricles, implying that these poxviruses were not as selective as originally predicted. For vvDD-IL15-Rα, some tumor-bearing mice died soon after virus treatment. If the same titer of vvDD-IL15-Rα was...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 5, 2019·Current Pharmaceutical Design·Yuhui Zhang, Zhuoming Liu
May 7, 2020·Frontiers in Oncology·Lizhi LiJian Ma
Feb 6, 2020·Clinical Cancer Research : an Official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research·Bingtao TangEdward J Roy

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Methods Mentioned

BETA
flow cytometry

Software Mentioned

GraphPad
ImageJ
GraphPad Prism

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Basal Ganglia

Basal Ganglia are a group of subcortical nuclei in the brain associated with control of voluntary motor movements, procedural and habit learning, emotion, and cognition. Here is the latest research.

Cancer Vaccines

Cancer vaccines are vaccines that either treat existing cancer or prevent development of a cancer.