Clinical trials have confirmed the safety of selectively oncolytic adenoviruses for treatment of advanced cancers. However, increasingly effective viruses could result in more toxicity and therefore it would be useful if replication could be abrogated if necessary. We analyzed viruses containing the cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) or vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promoter for controlling r...

Selective replication of oncolytic viruses in tumor cells provides a promising approach for the treatment of human cancers. One of the limitations observed with oncolytic viruses currently used in the treatment of solid tumors is the inefficient spread of virus throughout the tumor mass following intratumoral injection. Data are presented showing that oncolytic adenoviruses expressing the relax...

Selective replication of oncolytic viruses in tumor cells provides a promising approach for the treatment of human cancers. One of the limitations observed with oncolytic viruses currently used in the treatment of solid tumors is the inefficient spread of virus throughout the tumor mass following intratumoral injection. Data are presented showing that oncolytic adenoviruses expressing the relax...

The formation of a protective protein container is an essential step in the life-cycle of most viruses. In the case of single-stranded (ss)RNA viruses, this step occurs in parallel with genome packaging in a co-assembly process. Previously, it had been thought that this process can be explained entirely by electrostatics. Inspired by recent single-molecule fluorescence experiments that recapitu...

Viruses have shaped human history through devastating infections. In addition, virus infection may be responsible for up to 15% of cancer deaths [1]. Nevertheless, certain viruses can be our “friends.” At the end of the 18th century, Edward Jenner used cowpox to protect humans against infection with a lethal pathogen, smallpox. Based on the effectiveness of this “vaccination” process, in the 19...

Purpose:Radiotherapy is part of the standardof care inhigh-grade gliomasbut its outcomes remainpoor. Integrating oncolytic viruses with standard anticancer therapies is an area of active investigation. The aim of this study was to determine how tumor-targeted ionizing radiation (IR) could be combined with systemically delivered oncolytic vaccinia virus. Experimental Design:U-87 glioma xenograft...

PURPOSE Radiotherapy is part of the standard of care in high-grade gliomas but its outcomes remain poor. Integrating oncolytic viruses with standard anticancer therapies is an area of active investigation. The aim of this study was to determine how tumor-targeted ionizing radiation (IR) could be combined with systemically delivered oncolytic vaccinia virus. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN U-87 glioma xen...

Oncolytic virotherapy is the use of viruses to target a tumor for infection and lysis while leaving healthy cells uninfected. The history of viral oncology dates back to the turn of the 20th century when clinicians observed spontaneous regression of tumors after vaccination with attenuated viruses [1]. Experiments were done in the 1950s using Picornaviruses but soon fell out of favour to chemot...

An enzymatically activatable prodrug of doxorubicin was covalently coupled, using click-chemistry, to the hydrophobic core of poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-methacrylamide-lactate] micelles. The release and cytotoxic activity of the prodrug was evaluated in vitro in A549 non-small-cell lung cancer cells after adding β-glucuronidase, an enzyme which is present intracellularly i...

Virus-mediated oncolysis is not a new concept. The idea goes back to the early 1900s, when it was noted that a flu-like disease coincided with a substantial drop in the number of tumor cells in a leukemic patient (1) and that rabies vaccination was followed by regression of cervical cancer (2). Additional anecdotal observations followed, but early attempts at viral therapy for cancer were unsuc...