Development of an Oncolytic Virus Carrier That Enhances Cancer Cell Delivery Rate by Up to 100 Times

Yonsei University College of Medicine Professors Song Jae-jin and Choi Hye-jin
Injected Three Genes into Existing Carriers
Increased Virus Delivery to Tumors

[Photo by Yonsei Medical Center]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] A carrier that enhances the effectiveness of oncolytic virus therapy has been developed by a domestic research team.

Professor Song Jae-jin from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Yonsei University College of Medicine and Professor Choi Hye-jin from the Department of Oncology at Severance Hospital announced on the 7th that their research team developed a delivery system that improves the ability to rapidly and accurately target oncolytic viruses to cancer cells by up to 100 times.

Oncolytic viruses penetrate and proliferate within cancer cells, destroying them. The antigens released as the cancer cells lyse activate the immune system to eliminate the cancer. However, delivering the virus to tumors has been a major challenge in developing oncolytic virus therapies.

The research team created a carrier to overcome these limitations of oncolytic virus therapy and confirmed its effectiveness through mouse model experiments. First, they injected three genes into the existing mesenchymal stem cell carrier to block the possibility of the virus developing into a tumor while activating virus production and enhancing its ability to target only tumors.

Next, when the carrier containing luciferase was injected into mice with induced tumors, the amount of virus delivered was estimated to be over 10%, and the tumor targeting time was rapid, within 6 hours. Compared to injecting the virus alone or using the existing mesenchymal stem cells, the tumor delivery amount increased by up to 10,000 times and 100 times, respectively. Additionally, the virus was barely detected in organs other than the tumor.

Professor Song said, “This lays the groundwork for developing a therapy that improves both the efficacy and safety of existing oncolytic viruses,” adding, “We will strive to develop an actual treatment through technology transfer.” Professor Choi stated, “We expect great effects in treating intractable cancers such as metastatic cancer through the oncolytic virus carrier developed this time.”

The results of this study were published in the official journal of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy, Molecular Therapy Oncolytics.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.