All that glitters is not gold: the need to consider desirable and undesirable immune aspects of oncolytic virus therapy

Derek R Clements; Youra Kim; Shashi A Gujar; Patrick Wk Lee

doi:10.1080/2162402X.2015.1057674

All that glitters is not gold: the need to consider desirable and undesirable immune aspects of oncolytic virus therapy

Oncoimmunology. 2015 Jun 5;5(1):e1057674. doi: 10.1080/2162402X.2015.1057674. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Derek R Clements¹, Youra Kim¹, Shashi A Gujar², Patrick Wk Lee³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology; Dalhousie University ; Halifax, NS Canada.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Dalhousie University; Halifax, NS Canada; Strategy & Organizational Performance; IWK Health Centre; Halifax, NS Canada.
³ Department of Pathology; Dalhousie University; Halifax, NS Canada; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Dalhousie University; Halifax, NS Canada.

Abstract

Oncolytic viruses (OVs), a novel class of anticancer therapeutic agents, can overturn cancer-mediated immunosuppression and initiate antitumor immunity. Contrary to this paradigm, our recent study illustrates that oncolytic reovirus transiently augments cancer-associated immunosuppression immediately following its therapeutic administration. To achieve the optimum efficacy for OV-based anticancer therapies, the pathophysiological as well as clinical implications of this phenomenon need to be considered.

Keywords: MDSCs; antitumor immunity; immunosuppression; oncolytic virus; reovirus; tumor microenvironment.