Oncolytic Viruses

Posted: 11/25/2018

It almost sounds too good to be true that there are viruses (natural, engineered, or synthetic) that specialize on killing cancer cells without harming healthy cells. This virus possibly also kills surrounding cells (e.g. cancer-associated cells; immunosuppressive cells), if these surrounding cells prevent cancer treatment. And that is not all: The Enadenotucirev virus (formerly ColoAd1) is also reported to be a broad-spectrum treatment; “... it may give the body's natural immune response a boost along the way …” (Source 1)

“Oncolytic viruses hold great promise for the effective treatment of cancer because of their unique cell-killing mechanisms, tumor-selective replication, amplification of the initial therapy dose through replication in vivo, and potential to provoke an anticancer immune response” (Source 3)

Motto: Cancer is history!

Sources:

1. Scientists engineer a virus to take out cancer cells and their accomplices
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enadenotucirev
3. Phase 1 study of intravenous administration of the chimeric adenovirus enadenotucirev in patients undergoing primary tumor resection
4. An Oncolytic Virus Expressing a T-cell Engager Simultaneously Targets Cancer and Immunosuppressive Stromal Cells