Theranostic Tripartite Cancer Terminator Virus for Cancer Therapy and Imaging.

Cancers (Basel)

Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.

Published: February 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • The cancer terminator virus combines selective viral replication, therapeutic cytokine production, and strong anti-tumor effects to effectively target cancer cells.
  • A new "theranostic" adenovirus has been developed featuring three different promoters that enable targeted viral replication, cytokine production, and non-invasive imaging specifically within cancer cells.
  • Research in breast and prostate cancer models shows that the addition of an imaging reporter gene does not reduce the virus's therapeutic effectiveness, allowing for targeted tumor treatment while monitoring cancer progression and possible metastasis.

Article Abstract

Combining cancer-selective viral replication and simultaneous production of a therapeutic cytokine, with potent "bystander" anti-tumor activity, are hallmarks of the cancer terminator virus (). To expand on these attributes, we designed a next generation that additionally enables simultaneous non-invasive imaging of tumors targeted for eradication. A unique tripartite "theranostic" adenovirus () has now been created that employs three distinct promoters to target virus replication, cytokine production and imaging capabilities uniquely in cancer cells. Conditional replication of the is regulated by a cancer-selective (truncated ) promoter, the therapeutic component, MDA-7/IL-24, is under a ubiquitous () promoter, and finally the imaging capabilities are synchronized through another cancer selective (truncated ) promoter. Using in vitro studies and clinically relevant in vivo models of breast and prostate cancer, we demonstrate that incorporating a reporter gene for imaging does not compromise the exceptional therapeutic efficacy of our previously reported bipartite . This permits targeted treatment of tumors while monitoring tumor regression, with potential to simultaneously detect metastasis due to the cancer-selective activity of reporter gene expression. This "theranostic" virus provides a new genetic tool for distinguishing and treating localized and metastatic cancers.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7922065PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers13040857DOI Listing

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