Oncolytic Virotherapy for Tumor Treatment: Challenges and Solutions

Immunotherapy has shown to be a viable treatment option for a variety of cancers in recent decades. Among a variety of immunotherapies, oOncolytic viruses (OVs), which could be designed to proliferate and lyse tumor tissues selectively while sparing normal non-neoplastic host cells and restoring antitumor immunity, provide a unique immunotherapeutic method for cancer treatment.

However, despite their potential, OVs still have a number of limitations that must be addressed in order to increase their virotherapy efficacy. This article will introduce several strategies to advance OV therapy development.

• Picking the Right OV

Oncolytic adenoviruses, herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), polioviruses, measles virus (MV), Newcastle disease virus (NDV), reoviruses, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), and Zika virus are among the viral species that have been studied as potential cancer treatment agents. Although certain viruses get a native tumor tropism, they cannot easily match given OVs with a specific kind of malignancy. Important characteristics to evaluate in virus selection include the OV envelope and size, tumor tropism, possible pathogenicity, immunogenicity, druggability, and viral stability.

• Retargeting OVs

Different approaches ranging from genetics to chemistry have been used to retarget OVs in order to improve their tropism and lessen their negative effects, and some are now being tested in clinical studies. Capsid development, genomic engineering, and chemical alterations are the three basic types of retargeting techniques.

• Constructing Efficient OV Delivery Platforms

Although OVs outperform other immunotherapies for their their selective infection and multiplication in cancer cells, the ability to efficiently transport OV particles to tumors remains a big hurdle. The effectiveness and distribution of OVs are hampered by tumor development, decreased blood supply, abnormal lymphatic networks, vascular hyperpermeability inside tumors, the dense extracellular matrix (ECM) of solid tumors, and the host's immune system's antiviral actions.

• Maintaining the Balance between Antiviral Immunity and Antitumor Immunity

Another difficulty is the existence of innate and adaptive antiviral immune responses elicited by OVs, which might cause OVs to be cleared quickly, limiting their anticancer potency. Immunomodulators, genetic modification, antioxidant sulforaphane, cytokines, and other techniques have been proposed to reduce this antiviral immunity.

Some scientists claim that OV-induced antiviral immune responses are advantageous to antitumor immunity because they can overcome tumor-associated immunosuppression and lead to virus-induced immunogenic cell death, which activates antitumor immunity. As a result, techniques for managing antiviral immunity, enhancing antitumor immune activity, and maintaining the balance between the two are required.

"The latest research also found that oncolytic virotherapy can be combined with other treatments, such as immunosuppressive drugs, leading to a better outcome in tumor treatment," said a scientist from Creative Biolabs, a biotech company focusing on oncolytic virotherapy development CRO services, "being aware of huge potential of oncolytic virus, we have been dedicate to customized and reliable oncolytic virus therapy development services covering all aspects from oncolytic virus engineering, to animal testing, hoping to help global scientists accelerate their researches and explore a better strategy for cancer treatment."

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