A Cancer-Favoring, Engineered Vaccinia Virus for Cholangiocarcinoma

• Main Authors: So Young Yoo, Narayanasamy Badrinath, Hye Lim Lee, Jeong Heo, Dae-Hwan Kang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Cancers
• Subjects: cholangiocarcinoma (cca); cancer-favoring vaccinia virus (cvv); alkaline extracellular microenvironment
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/11/11/1667

While oncolytic vaccinia virus-based therapy has shown promising results for uncured patients with cancer, its effects on cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) remain unclear. Here, we evaluated the anti-cancer activity of the cancer-favoring oncolytic vaccinia virus (CVV), which was recognized as a promising therapy for stem cell-like colon cancer cells (SCCs) and metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in previous studies. CCA presents major challenges, such as clinical complexity, stem cell cancer characteristics, a high refractory rate, resistance to conventional therapy, and a dismal prognosis. In the present study, we confirmed the oncolytic activity of the CVV in CCA with a slightly alkaline microenvironment (pH 7−8), in which the CVV was stable and highly effective at infecting CCA. Taken together, our findings suggest that CVV-based therapy is highly suitable for the treatment of CCA.