%0 Journal Article
%T Systemic Delivery of Oncolytic Viruses: Hopes and Hurdles
%A Mark S. Ferguson
%A Nicholas R. Lemoine
%A Yaohe Wang
%J Advances in Virology
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/805629
%X Despite recent advances in both surgery and chemoradiotherapy, mortality rates for advanced cancer remain high. There is a pressing need for novel therapeutic strategies; one option is systemic oncolytic viral therapy. Intravenous administration affords the opportunity to treat both the primary tumour and any metastatic deposits simultaneously. Data from clinical trials have shown that oncolytic viruses can be systemically delivered safely with limited toxicity but the results are equivocal in terms of efficacy, particularly when delivered with adjuvant chemotherapy. A key reason for this is the rapid clearance of the viruses from the circulation before they reach their targets. This phenomenon is mainly mediated through neutralising antibodies, complement activation, antiviral cytokines, and tissue-resident macrophages, as well as nonspecific uptake by other tissues such as the lung, liver and spleen, and suboptimal viral escape from the vascular compartment. A range of methods have been reported in the literature, which are designed to overcome these hurdles in preclinical models. In this paper, the potential advantages of, and obstacles to, successful systemic delivery of oncolytic viruses are discussed. The next stage of development will be the commencement of clinical trials combining these novel approaches for overcoming the barriers with systemically delivered oncolytic viruses. 1. Introduction Cancer remains a major health problem and is the 5th leading cause of death worldwide [1]. There have been many advances in the last few decades both in surgical care and chemoradiotherapy regimes. Certainly this has contributed to improved survival rates for commonly occurring cancers. However, relapse and disease progression are still all too common occurrences in modern medical practice. A variety of novel adjuvant therapies have been developed over the last decade, and oncolytic viruses have been particularly promising members of this cohort. Oncolytic viruses came to medical prominence in the 19th century when coincidental viral infections were observed to cause regression of some forms of haematological malignancies. Rabies inoculation was also demonstrated to regress a patient¡¯s advanced cervical carcinoma [2]. A succession of studies in the 1950s and 60s were unable to establish oncolytic viral therapy as a viable anti-cancer modality. As a result, the field remained a medical curiosity until the advent of genetic engineering in the late 1980s. In the last decade, there have been rapid advancements in the oncolytic viral therapy field. Naturally
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/av/2012/805629/