Engineering Non-Human RNA Viruses for Cancer Therapy

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 10; p. 1617
• Main Authors: Tur-Planells, Vicent, García-Sastre, Adolfo, Cuadrado-Castano, Sara, Nistal-Villan, Estanislao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.10.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Brain cancer; Cancer; Cancer immunotherapy; Cancer therapies; cancer vaccines; Care and treatment; Clinical trials; FDA approval; Genetic engineering; Genomes; Herpes viruses; Immune system; Immunostimulation; Immunotherapy; Infections; Melanoma; Oncolysis; oncolytic virus; Proteins; reverse genetics; Review; RNA viruses; Vaccines; viral vectors; virotherapy; Viruses; Spain; China; reverse genetics; virotherapy; cancer vaccines; oncolytic virus; viral vectors; immunotherapy
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11101617

Alongside the development and progress in cancer immunotherapy, research in oncolytic viruses (OVs) continues advancing novel treatment strategies to the clinic. With almost 50 clinical trials carried out over the last decade, the opportunities for intervention using OVs are expanding beyond the old-fashioned concept of "lytic killers", with promising breakthrough therapeutic strategies focused on leveraging the immunostimulatory potential of different viral platforms. This review presents an overview of non-human-adapted RNA viruses engineered for cancer therapy. Moreover, we describe the diverse strategies employed to manipulate the genomes of these viruses to optimize their therapeutic capabilities. By focusing on different aspects of this particular group of viruses, we describe the insights into the promising advancements in the field of virotherapy and its potential to revolutionize cancer treatment.