Oncolytic measles virus-based delivery systems

The majority of advanced malignancies remain incurable despite the considerable progress that has been achieved in recent years. Thus, novel treatment modalities are urgently required. Oncolytic virotherapy represents one such potential strategy that harnesses the propensity of certain viruses to selectively invade and lyse cancer tissues [1]. Such viruses have developed, over millennia of adaptive evolution, multiple diverse mechanisms that allow efficient invasion of human tissues and usurpation of the cellular biosynthetic machinery. Oncolytic, replication-competent viruses specifically invade and proliferate within malignant cells, resulting in the release of viral progeny that further facilitates the spread of the infection to adjacent cells. Therefore, in contrast to other anticancer strategies, the oncolytic effect of the initial replicative virus dose can be self-amplified over time.