TITLE:
Development of Oncolytic Reovirus for Cancer Therapy
AUTHORS:
Ergin Sahin, Michael E. Egger, Kelly M. McMasters, Heshan Sam Zhou
KEYWORDS:
Reovirus; Oncolysis; Cancer; Cancer Gene Therapy; dsRNA
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.4 No.6,
July
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: Reovirus, a double-stranded RNA virus,
can infect many types of cancer cells and cause oncolysis. Mammalian reovirus has exhibited promising
anticancer activity in clinical trials and holds great advantages and promise
as an anticancer agent. Reovirus is not associated with any serious human
diseases, naturally targets and destroys tumors, and lacks the DNA synthesis
stage, thus avoiding potential DNA insertion mutations. This review discusses
the properties of reovirus related to oncolysis and the mechanisms of oncolytic
selection, and summarizes the preclinical and clinical studies that have led to
the current Phase III trial. In addition, three major challenges in the development
of reovirus-mediated oncolytic therapy are discussed. These are: the mechanisms of reovirus
oncolysis remain to be fully characterized; the host immune responses should be
manipulated to enhance viral anti-tumor effects; and the efficacy of reovirus oncolysis
may be further improved by developing new vectors and studying other
double-stranded RNA viruses.