Molecular Therapy
Volume 26, Issue 4, 4 April 2018, Pages 1008-1019
Journal home page for Molecular Therapy

Original Article
Pre-existing Immunity to Oncolytic Virus Potentiates Its Immunotherapeutic Efficacy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.01.019Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Anti-viral immunity presents a major hurdle for systemically administered oncolytic viruses (OV). Intratumoral OV therapy has a potential to overcome this problem through activation of anti-tumor immune response, with local and abscopal effects. However, the effects of anti-viral immunity in such a setting are still not well defined. Using Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) as a model, we explore the effects of pre-existing anti-viral immunity on therapeutic efficacy in syngeneic mouse tumor models. Unexpectedly, we find that while pre-existing immunity to NDV limits its replication in tumors, tumor clearance, abscopal anti-tumor immune effects, and survival are not compromised and, on the contrary, are superior in NDV-immunized mice. These findings demonstrate that pre-existing immunity to NDV may increase its therapeutic efficacy through potentiation of systemic anti-tumor immunity, which provides clinical rationale for repeated therapeutic dosing and prompts investigation of such effects with other OVs.

Keywords

Newcastle Disease Virus
oncolytic virus
pre-existing immunity
cancer immunotherapy
immuno-oncology
tumor immunology
NDV

Cited by (0)