Efficacy and safety of oncolytic vaccinia virus and Semliki Forest virus in the treatment of canine and feline malignant tumours
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Cancer is one of the most common reasons for death in dogs, cats and humans. New therapeutic modalities are necessary to improve disease outcome. One promising approach is oncolytic virotherapy. Until now, the only oncolytic virus evaluated in a clinical trial in veterinary medicine has been canine oncolytic adenovirus, but a clinical trial has been started with oncolytic vaccinia virus (VV) in pet dogs. In cats, oncolytic viruses have not been evaluated in clinical settings. Tumour treatment in dogs and cats could also serve as a model for human cancer therapy. The purpose of the thesis was to evaluate preclinically whether genetically modified oncolytic VV and Semliki Forest virus (SFV) could offer a new treatment modality for dogs and cats. Oncolytic VV was rendered tumour selective by a dual ablation of vaccinia growth factor and thymidine kinase, making it more cancer-specific than previously used VVs in veterinary research. To further increase the efficacy of the VV, an immunostimulatory gene, CD40L, was added to the virus backbone. Avirulent SFV A7(74) has a natural trophism for cancer cells and was not genetically manipulated. Both viruses infected and killed tested cancer cell lines, and VV also infected most of the primary surgical tumour tissues tested. In the nude mouse xenograft model, double deleted VV (vvdd) significantly reduced tumour growth. Interestingly, when in intact monolayers, SCCF1 cells were not killed by VV, but secreted infectious, morphologically abnormal virions. One dog experienced a possible seizure after VV administration, but no other serious adverse events occurred. Vaccinia DNA declined quickly in the blood after virus administration, but was still detectable one week later by qPCR. Only samples taken directly after the VV infusion contained infectious virus, which was not found in any other blood, saliva, urine or faecal samples. Necropsies did not reveal any pathological changes associated with virus administrations. In conclusion, our results show that oncolytic VV and SFV can infect and kill tested canine cancer cell lines, and that VV has antitumoral activity in the mouse xenograft model and it can infect fresh tumour biopsies. In addition, intravenous administration of the viruses did not induce life-threatening adverse events in healthy dogs. These agents thus warrant further evaluation in veterinary medicine.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Karoliina Autio
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1518352160