Oncolytic coxsackievirus therapy as an immunostimulator.

Abstract

Recently, the active development of oncolytic virotherapy has gathered attention. Enterovirus research seeks to better understand its pathogenicity. In particular, coxsackievirus A21 (CVA21) is a promising candidate for oncolytic virotherapy, and thus is the focus of many clinical trials. We have reported that coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) had potent oncolytic activity for cancer, and induced immunogenic cell death of CVB3-infected cells. We then genetically engineered wild type CVB3 and successfully produced a novel recombinant CVB3-miRT, improving its safety by the introducing an organ-specific miRNA target sequence. We also developed the production method of CVB3 agent, and are conducting a clinical trial of CVB3 therapy for cancer patients. In this report, we review recent clinical progress in oncolytic virotherapy of CVA21 and clinical development of our CVB3.