Oncolytic virotherapy (OV) is a cancer therapy utilizing lytic viruses that specifically target cells for elimination. In this relatively new therapy, two contradictory observations have been made. Some studies showed immune responses including activated natural killer (NK) post oncolytic viral infection increased the cell death, while others reported such initial diminished anti-tumor efficacy...

Oncolytic viruses hold promise for the treatment of cancer, but their interaction with the tumor microenvironment needs to be elucidated for optimal tumor cell killing. Because the CXCR4 receptor for the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1/CXCL12) chemokine is one of the key stimuli involved in signaling interactions between tumor cells and their stromal microenvironment, we used oncolytic vir...

INTRODUCTION Oncolytic viruses are experimental cancer therapies being translated to the clinic. They are unique in their ability to amplify within the body, therefore requiring careful monitoring of viral replication and biodistribution. Traditional monitoring strategies fail to recapitulate the dynamic nature of oncolytic virotherapy. Consequently, clinically relevant, noninvasive, high resol...

BACKGROUND Dogs suffer from spontaneous tumors which may be amenable to therapies developed for human cancer patients, and dogs may serve as large-animal cancer models. A non-pathogenic Semliki Forest virus vector VA7-EGFP previously showed promise in targeting human tumor xenografts in mice, but the oncolytic capacity of the virus in canine cancer cells and the safety of the virus in higher ma...

Myxoma virus is a rabbit-specific poxvirus pathogen that also exhibits a unique tropism for human tumor cells and is dramatically oncolytic for human cancer xenografts. Most tumor cell lines tested are permissive for myxoma infection in a fashion intimately tied to the activation state of Akt kinase. A host range factor of myxoma virus, M-T5, directly interacts with Akt and mediates myxoma viru...

UNLABELLED Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are attractive avenues of cancer therapy due to the absence of toxic side effects often seen with current treatment modalities. Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) is a species-specific virus that does not induce cytotoxicity in normal primary human cells but can infect and kill various human immortalized and transformed cell lines. To gain a better understanding of ...

Oncolytic viruses have demonstrated selective replication and killing of tumor cells. Different types of oncolytic viruses - adenoviruses, alphaviruses, herpes simplex viruses, Newcastle disease viruses, rhabdoviruses, Coxsackie viruses, and vaccinia viruses - have been applied as either naturally occurring or engineered vectors. Numerous studies in animal-tumor models have demonstrated substan...

Oncolytic viruses promise to significantly improve current cancer treatments through their tumor-selective replication and multimodal attack against cancer cells. However, one of the biggest setbacks for oncolytic virus therapy is the intravenous delivery of the virus, as it can be cleared from the bloodstream by neutralizing antibodies before it reaches the tumor cells. We have selected DNA ap...

The paper reviews computational models for analyzing the use of replicating oncolytic viruses as therapeutic agents against cancers. The paper highlights viral and host paramters which are crucial for success, and discusses how virus strains can be optimized in order to achieve maximial remission of cancers. The models consider three mechansisms by which oncolytic virus therapy could work: (i) ...

Cancer therapy remains a challenge due to toxicity limitations of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Oncolytic viruses that selectively replicate and destroy cancer cells are of increasing interest. In addition to direct cell lysis, these vectors stimulate an anti-tumor immune response. A key regulator of tumor immunity is the tumor-associated macrophage population. Macrophages can either supp...