William Jia
University of British Columbia, ViroGin Biotech Ltd, Canada
Title: Oncolytic HSV-1 with enhancement of both oncolysis and safety
Biography
Biography: William Jia
Abstract
Oncolytic virotherapy has attracted increasing attention due to recent approval of T-VEC by FDA. Although anti-tumor immune response is a critical mechanism for oncolytic virotherapy, strong oncolytic viral activity for extensive cell lysis and virus dissemination inside of tumor also play a pivotal role for better therapeutic efficacy. However, it has always been a challenge to create an oncolytic virus that is highly oncolytic but also tumor specific for safety. In past years, we have been developing strategies that allow not only to enhance the safety but also to increase oncolytic activity at the same time. Those strategies include transcriptional and translational dual regulation on essential viral gene expression, overcoming macrophage/microglia barriers for better viral spreading in the tumor mass and enhancing virus oncolytic activity by inhibiting both anti-viral and oncogene cellular signals by a small molecule. We would present examples of those strategies and show their effects in animal tumor models.