Advanced Therapies Journal

Advanced Therapies Journal

Introduction of Oncolytic Viruses as Candidates for Targeted Cancer Therapy

Reviewers

Authors
1 Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417613151, Iran.
2 Molecular Medicine Department, Biotechnology Research Centre of Pasteur Institute of Iran.
10.22034/atj.2024.210456
Abstract
Given the progress in comprehending various forms of cancer and the subsequent pursuit of a remedy, along with improved survival rates for cancer patients, it is crucial to discover a therapeutic that may effectively counteract the aggressive mechanisms of this illness. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) have shown to be very advantageous in the treatment of cancer due to their ability to induce antitumor effects via several mechanisms. Viruses may be used to infect cancer cells, particularly in comparison to normal cells, to introduce tumor-associated antigens, trigger “danger signals” that create a less immune-tolerant tumor microenvironment, and function as delivery vehicles for the release of inflammatory and immunomodulatory cytokines. These modified OVs, which have been designed to have improved capacity to target tumors, increased oncolytic activity, or the potential to generate strong anti-tumor immune responses, are evaluated in animal models during preclinical testing and in clinical trials involving cancer patients. OVs have been recognized as one of the primary agents for cancer immunotherapy due to their ability to target tumors via many mechanisms. Nevertheless, given the restricted efficacy of innovative anti-cancer treatments including immunotherapies and cell-based therapies, it is imperative to evaluate the potential of combination therapy using OVs. This study aims to introduce oncolytic viruses and review their capacity to induce antitumor responses, their challenges and limitations.
Keywords

1.Goradel NH, Alizadeh A, Hosseinzadeh S, Taghipour M, Ghesmati Z, Arashkia A, et al. Oncolytic virotherapy as promising immunotherapy against cancer: mechanisms of resistance to oncolytic viruses. Future Oncology. 2022;18(2):245-59.
2.Melcher A, Harrington K, Vile R. Oncolytic virotherapy as immunotherapy. Science. 2021;374(6573):1325-6.
3.Apolonio JS, de Souza Gonçalves VL, Santos MLC, Luz MS, Souza JVS, Pinheiro SLR, et al. Oncolytic virus therapy in cancer: A current review. World journal of virology. 2021;10(5):229.
4.Goradel NH, Baker AT, Arashkia A, Ebrahimi N, Ghorghanlu S, Negahdari B. Oncolytic virotherapy: Challenges and solutions. Current problems in cancer. 2021;45(1):100639.
5.Ylösmäki E, Cerullo V. Design and application of oncolytic viruses for cancer immunotherapy. Current opinion in biotechnology. 2020;65:25-36.
6.Hemminki O, Dos Santos JM, Hemminki A. Oncolytic viruses for cancer immunotherapy. Journal of hematology & oncology. 2020;13:1-15.
7.Malhotra J, Kim ES. Oncolytic viruses and cancer immunotherapy. Current Oncology Reports. 2023;25(1):19-28.
8.Kooti W, Esmaeili Gouvarchin Ghaleh H, Farzanehpour M, Dorostkar R, Jalali Kondori B, Bolandian M. Oncolytic viruses and cancer, do you know the main mechanism? Frontiers in Oncology. 2021;11:761015.
9.De Matos AL, Franco LS, McFadden G. Oncolytic viruses and the immune system: the dynamic duo. Molecular Therapy-Methods & Clinical Development. 2020;17:349-58.
10.Rahman MM, McFadden G. Oncolytic viruses: newest frontier for cancer immunotherapy. Cancers. 2021;13(21):5452.
11.Garmaroudi GA, Karimi F, Naeini LG, Kokabian P, Givtaj N. Therapeutic efficacy of oncolytic viruses in fighting cancer: Recent advances and perspective. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. 2022;2022(1):3142306.
12.Volovat SR, Scripcariu DV, Vasilache IA, Stolniceanu CR, Volovat C, Augustin IG, et al. Oncolytic virotherapy: a new paradigm in cancer immunotherapy. International journal of molecular sciences. 2024;25(2):1180.
13.Shmulevitz M, Lee PW. Exploring host factors that impact reovirus replication, dissemination, and reovirus-induced cell death in cancer versus normal cells in culture. Oncolytic Viruses: Methods and Protocols. 2012:163-76.
14.Martin NT, Bell JC. Oncolytic virus combination therapy: killing one bird with two stones. Molecular Therapy. 2018;26(6):1414-22.
15.Nettelbeck DM, Leber MF, Altomonte J, Angelova A, Beil J, Berchtold S, et al. Virotherapy in Germany—recent activities in virus engineering, preclinical development, and clinical studies. Viruses. 2021;13(8):1420.
16.Al-Ostoot FH, Salah S, Khamees HA, Khanum SA. Tumor angiogenesis: Current challenges and therapeutic opportunities. Cancer Treatment and Research Communications. 2021;28:100422.
17.Ikeda Y, Kojima T, Kuroda S, Endo Y, Sakai R, Hioki M, et al. A novel antiangiogenic effect for telomerase-specific virotherapy through host immune system. The Journal of Immunology. 2009;182(3):1763-9.
18.Tysome JR, Briat A, Alusi G, Cao F, Gao D, Yu J, et al. Lister strain of vaccinia virus armed with endostatin–angiostatin fusion gene as a novel therapeutic agent for human pancreatic cancer. Gene therapy. 2009;16(10):1223-33.
19.Zhang G, Jin G, Nie X, Mi R, Zhu G, Jia W, et al. Enhanced antitumor efficacy of an oncolytic herpes simplex virus expressing an endostatin–angiostatin fusion gene in human glioblastoma stem cell xenografts. PLoS One. 2014;9(4):e95872.
20.Bommareddy PK, Shettigar M, Kaufman HL. Integrating oncolytic viruses in combination cancer immunotherapy. Nature Reviews Immunology. 2018;18(8):498-513.
21.Andtbacka RH, Ross M, Puzanov I, Milhem M, Collichio F, Delman KA, et al. Patterns of clinical response with talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) in patients with melanoma treated in the OPTiM phase III clinical trial. Annals of surgical oncology. 2016;23:4169-77.
22.Bridle BW, Stephenson KB, Boudreau JE, Koshy S, Kazdhan N, Pullenayegum E, et al. Potentiating cancer immunotherapy using an oncolytic virus. Molecular Therapy. 2010;18(8):1430-9.
23.Ferguson MS, Lemoine NR, Wang Y. Systemic delivery of oncolytic viruses: hopes and hurdles. Advances in virology. 2012;2012(1):805629.
24.Heo J, Reid T, Ruo L, Breitbach CJ, Rose S, Bloomston M, et al. Randomized dose-finding clinical trial of oncolytic immunotherapeutic vaccinia JX-594 in liver cancer. Nature medicine. 2013;19(3):329-36.
25.Lin D, Shen Y, Liang T. Oncolytic virotherapy: basic principles, recent advances and future directions. Signal transduction and targeted therapy. 2023;8(1):156.
26.Hakkarainen T, Särkioja M, Lehenkari P, Miettinen S, Ylikomi T, Suuronen R, et al. Human mesenchymal stem cells lack tumor tropism but enhance the antitumor activity of oncolytic adenoviruses in orthotopic lung and breast tumors. Human gene therapy. 2007;18(7):627-41.
27.Ahmed AU, Rolle CE, Tyler MA, Han Y, Sengupta S, Wainwright DA, et al. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells loaded with an oncolytic adenovirus suppress the anti-adenoviral immune response in the cotton rat model. Molecular Therapy. 2010;18(10):1846-56.
28.Yuan X, Zhang Q, Li Z, Zhang X, Bao S, Fan D, et al. Mesenchymal stem cells deliver and release conditionally replicative adenovirus depending on hepatic differentiation to eliminate hepatocellular carcinoma cells specifically. Cancer letters. 2016;381(1):85-95.
29.Stoff-Khalili MA, Rivera AA, Mathis JM, Banerjee NS, Moon AS, Hess A, et al. Mesenchymal stem cells as a vehicle for targeted delivery of CRAds to lung metastases of breast carcinoma. Breast cancer research and treatment. 2007;105:157-67.
30.Garofalo M, Villa A, Rizzi N, Kuryk L, Mazzaferro V, Ciana P. Systemic administration and targeted delivery of immunogenic oncolytic adenovirus encapsulated in extracellular vesicles for cancer therapies. Viruses. 2018;10(10):558.
31.Kakiuchi Y, Kuroda S, Kanaya N, Kagawa S, Tazawa H, Fujiwara T. Exosomes as a drug delivery tool for cancer therapy: A new era for existing drugs and oncolytic viruses. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets. 2023;27(9):807-16.
32.Labani-Motlagh A, Naseri S, Wenthe J, Eriksson E, Loskog A. Systemic immunity upon local oncolytic virotherapy armed with immunostimulatory genes may be supported by tumor-derived exosomes. Molecular Therapy-Oncolytics. 2021;20:508-18.
33.Eriksson E, Milenova I, Wenthe J, Ståhle M, Leja-Jarblad J, Ullenhag G, et al. Shaping the tumor stroma and sparking immune activation by CD40 and 4-1BB signaling induced by an armed oncolytic virus. Clinical Cancer Research. 2017;23(19):5846-57.
34.Doroudian M, MacLoughlin R, Poynton F, Prina-Mello A, Donnelly SC. Nanotechnology based therapeutics for lung disease. Thorax. 2019;74(10):965-76.
35.Yoo J, Park C, Yi G, Lee D, Koo H. Active targeting strategies using biological ligands for nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Cancers. 2019;11(5):640.
36.Chen L, Zuo M, Zhou Q, Wang Y. Oncolytic virotherapy in cancer treatment: challenges and optimization prospects. Frontiers in Immunology. 2023;14:1308890.
37.Ricca JM, Oseledchyk A, Walther T, Liu C, Mangarin L, Merghoub T, et al. Pre-existing immunity to oncolytic virus potentiates its immunotherapeutic efficacy. Molecular therapy. 2018;26(4):1008-19.
38.Kurokawa C, Iankov ID, Anderson SK, Aderca I, Leontovich AA, Maurer MJ, et al. Constitutive interferon pathway activation in tumors as an efficacy determinant following oncolytic virotherapy. JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2018;110(10):1123-32.
39.Senzer NN, Kaufman HL, Amatruda T, Nemunaitis M, Reid T, Daniels G, et al. Phase II clinical trial of a granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor–encoding, second-generation oncolytic herpesvirus in patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2009;27(34):5763-71.
40.Hu JC, Coffin RS, Davis CJ, Graham NJ, Groves N, Guest PJ, et al. A phase I study of OncoVEXGM-CSF, a second-generation oncolytic herpes simplex virus expressing granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Clinical cancer research. 2006;12(22):6737-47.
41.Zhu Z, McGray AR, Jiang W, Lu B, Kalinski P, Guo ZS. Improving cancer immunotherapy by rationally combining oncolytic virus with modulators targeting key signaling pathways. Molecular cancer. 2022;21(1):196.
42.Wang X, Shen Y, Wan X, Hu X, Cai W-Q, Wu Z, et al. Oncolytic virotherapy evolved into the fourth generation as tumor immunotherapy. Journal of Translational Medicine. 2023;21(1):500.
43.Liu Z, Ge Y, Wang H, Ma C, Feist M, Ju S, et al. Modifying the cancer-immune set point using vaccinia virus expressing re-designed interleukin-2. Nature Communications. 2018;9(1):4682.
44.Zhang B, Huang J, Tang J, Hu S, Luo S, Luo Z, et al. Intratumoral OH2, an oncolytic herpes simplex virus 2, in patients with advanced solid tumors: a multicenter, phase I/II clinical trial. Journal for immunotherapy of cancer. 2021;9(4).
45.Nakao S, Arai Y, Tasaki M, Yamashita M, Murakami R, Kawase T, et al. Intratumoral expression of IL-7 and IL-12 using an oncolytic virus increases systemic sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade. Science translational medicine. 2020;12(526):eaax7992.
46.LaRocca CJ, Warner SG. Oncolytic viruses and checkpoint inhibitors: combination therapy in clinical trials. Clinical and translational medicine. 2018;7(1):35.
47.Wang Y, Jin J, Li Y, Zhou Q, Yao R, Wu Z, et al. NK cell tumor therapy modulated by UV-inactivated oncolytic herpes simplex virus type 2 and checkpoint inhibitors. Translational Research. 2022;240:64-86.
48.Sun L, Funchain P, Song JM, Rayman P, Tannenbaum C, Ko J, et al. Talimogene Laherparepvec combined with anti-PD-1 based immunotherapy for unresectable stage III-IV melanoma: a case series. Journal for immunotherapy of cancer. 2018;6:1-7.
49.Aurelian L. Oncolytic viruses as immunotherapy: progress and remaining challenges. OncoTargets and therapy. 2016:2627-37.
50.Shalhout SZ, Miller DM, Emerick KS, Kaufman HL. Therapy with oncolytic viruses: progress and challenges. Nature reviews Clinical oncology. 2023;20(3):160-77.
51.Russell SJ, Peng K-W, Bell JC. Oncolytic virotherapy. Nature biotechnology. 2012;30(7):658-70.
52.Zheng M, Huang J, Tong A, Yang H. Oncolytic viruses for cancer therapy: barriers and recent advances. Molecular Therapy-Oncolytics. 2019;15:234-47.
 
Volume 6, Issue 21
Autumn 2024
Pages 9-19

  • Receive Date 12 October 2024
  • Revise Date 01 November 2024
  • Accept Date 08 November 2024