Designing and building oncolytic viruses

Maroun, Justin; Muñoz-Alía, Miguel; Ammayappan, Arun; Schulze, Autumn; Peng, Kah-Whye; Russell, Stephen

Viral cytotoxicity is the basis of tumor cell death necessary for oncolytic activity. Off-target infection and killing of normal cells by poorly targeted OVs or by OVs that have evolved new tropisms in a treated patient can cause unwanted normal tissue pathology. OVs are therefore delicately balanced between retaining enough virulence to substantially decrease tumor burden versus being sufficiently targeted (or attenuated) to not cause a new disease in the patient. Cancer-specific targeting is the most critical safety feature, but viruses evolve and viral populations are dynamic [172] . Evolution is a constant accompaniment of a spreading virus infection, whether or not the virus is oncolytic; in vivo progeny of the therapeutic OV differs on average by a single -point mutation per genome from the input virus [173] . Hence, as the input virus is amplified, it generates a swarm of quasispecies viruses, each one a slightly imperfect replica of the input virus. This swarm of progeny viruses is subjected to selective pressure as it encounters new biological niches in the treated cancer patient. Thus, if it so happens that a member of the swarm is capable of infecting a normal host tissue, the virus may have gained a new foothold from which to further evolve. Gaining new cell tropisms or losing restriction factors is therefore a significant theoretical concern in oncolytic infections, but has not yet been documented in human trials, nor in preclinical models. However, given the importance of this particular scenario, a great deal of attention is paid to the problem not just by investigators, but also by regulatory agencies.