REVIEW: Recombinant Strains of Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus for Cancer Immunotherapy

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Yasmin Shakiba^1,2,a, Pavel O. Vorobyev^2,b, Marah Mahmoud^2,c, Azzam Hamad^2,d, Dmitriy V. Kochetkov^2,e, Gaukhar M. Yusubalieva^2,3,4,f, Vladimir P. Baklaushev^2,3,4,g, Peter M. Chumakov^2,h, and Anastasia V. Lipatova^2,i*

¹Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia

²Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia

³Federal Research Clinical Center for Specialized Medical Care and Medical Technologies, Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), 115682 Moscow, Russia

⁴Federal Center of Brain Research and Neurotechnologies of the FMBA of Russia, 117513 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received January 16, 2023; Revised April 6, 2023; Accepted April 24, 2023

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Cancer virotherapy is an alternative therapeutic approach based on the viruses that selectively infect and kill tumor cells. Vaccinia virus (VV) is a member of the Poxviridae, a family of enveloped viruses with a large linear double-stranded DNA genome. The proven safety of the VV strains as well as considerable transgene capacity of the viral genome, make VV an excellent platform for creating recombinant oncolytic viruses for cancer therapy. Furthermore, various genetic modifications can increase tumor selectivity and therapeutic efficacy of VV by arming it with the immune-modulatory genes or proapoptotic molecules, boosting the host immune system, and increasing cross-priming recognition of the tumor cells by T-cells or NK cells. In this review, we summarized the data on bioengineering approaches to develop recombinant VV strains for enhanced cancer immunotherapy.

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KEY WORDS: oncolytic virus, recombinant virus, immunosuppression, immunomodulation, cytokine, vaccinia virus

DOI: 10.1134/S000629792306010X

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