PubMed Oncovirus
1 Viral Oncology: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis
Conclusions
Viral oncology is a field of growing interest that is continually under research. Promising new agents are emerging for the treatment of virus-related cancers. As our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis linking oncovirus and human cancer continues to improve, we are seeing a push for the development of a multitude of potential treatments that may enhance the killing of infected tumor cells, while sparing normal, healthy cells, and thereby maximizing the therapeutic index. The seven known human oncoviruses target many of the same host signaling pathways to induce oncogenesis. Novel therapies that have shown efficacy in one virus-related cancer may be expanded to all virus-related cancers sharing the same pathways. These innovative approaches may finally put a cure for cancer on the horizon.
2. Lovastatin Inhibits Cancer Stem Cells and Sensitizes to Chemo- And Photodynamic Therapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
Epstein-Barr virus, formerly known as human herpesvirus-4, is one of eight known human viruses belonging to the herpesviridae family. The majority of EBV infection is acquired during childhood via salivary transmission. It is estimated that more than 90% of the world’s population have been infected with EBV by adulthood [33,34]. After primary infection, EBV persists in a latent state, most commonly in resting memory B cells and sometimes in epithelial cells, T cells, or natural killer (NK) cells..... lovastatin conferred enhanced sensitivity to the chemotherapeutic and photodynamic agents in NPC CSCs. Together our findings suggest that targeting CSCs by lovastatin in combination with routine chemotherapeutic drugs or photodynamic therapy might be a promising approach to the treatment of NPC.
3. Photodynamic therapy augments the efficacy of oncolytic vaccinia virus against primary and metastatic tumours in mice
ABSTRACT
Background:
Therapies targeted towards the tumour vasculature can be exploited for the purpose of improving the systemic delivery of oncolytic viruses to tumours. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a clinically approved treatment for cancer that is known to induce potent effects on tumour vasculature. In this study, we examined the activity of PDT in combination with oncolytic vaccinia virus (OVV) against primary and metastatic tumours in mice .These results provide evidence into the usefulness of PDT as a means of enhancing intratumoural replication and therapeutic efficacy of OV.
4 Photodynamic Inactivation of Mammalian Viruses and Bacteriophages
Abstract
Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) has been used to inactivate microorganisms through the use of photosensitizers. The inactivation of mammalian viruses and bacteriophages by photosensitization has been applied with success since the first decades of the last century. Due to the fact that mammalian viruses are known to pose a threat to public health and that bacteriophages are frequently used as models of mammalian viruses, it is important to know and understand the mechanisms and photodynamic procedures involved in their photoinactivation. The aim of this review is to (i) summarize the main approaches developed until now for the photodynamic inactivation of bacteriophages and mammalian viruses.
5 Efficacy and safety of photodynamic therapy for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and human papilloma virus infection
Background:
We sought to conduct a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials to assess the efficacy and safety of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. We compared the findings of relevant studies with those of ours regarding the efficacy outcome, CRR, and the safety outcome, AER. Our systematic review revealed that the CRRs for PDT with CIN and cervical HPV infection were 81.0% (range, 31.3%–100%) and 80.4% (range, 53.4%–94.4%), respectively. Similarly, the systematic review by Tao et al reported the CRR with PDT for CIN at 0% to 100% and for HPV eradication at 53.4% to 80.0%, which strongly supports our hypothesis that PDT is an effective therapy for treating patients with CIN and cervical HPV infection.
6 Hepatitis C Medications: Costs, Side Effects, and More
The majority of virus-related cancers occur in the developing world. The lack of affordable antiviral therapies is a severe barrier to entry to health care and an affordable procedure to treat viruse4s with the 'broad spectrum anti-viral SPDT platform would be a breakthrough in treatment. Hepatitis C is an infection that affects the liver. It’s caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The goal of treatment is to prevent liver damage. Treatment also helps clear the virus from your body.
Traditional treatments are often long and drawn-out. They may also cause a number of side effects. Newer, more advanced drugs are coming to the market, though. They’re expensive and may not be covered by your health insurance. For example, the price for a full course of treatment for some of these drugs is more than $90,000+. However, these drugs reduce the length of treatment and have fewer side effects. They may also work better.
7 Inactivating hepatitis C virus in donor lungs using light therapies during normothermic ex vivo lung perfusion
Lung transplantation (LTx) is a successful therapy for end-stage lung diseases but the number of available donors do not meet the demand1,2, partially due to the fact that only 15% of lungs from available donors are used3. The shortage of suitable organs leads to high waiting-list mortality rates4. Consequently, approaches to increase organ availability are critical for realizing the maximum potential benefit of transplantation
Availability of organs is a limiting factor for lung transplantation, leading to substantial mortality rates on the wait list. Use of organs from donors with transmissible viral infections, such as hepatitis C virus (HCV), would increase organ donation, but these organs are generally not offered for transplantation due to a high risk of transmission.
Here, we develop a method for treatment of HCV-infected human donor lungs that prevents HCV transmission. Physical viral clearance in combination with germicidal light-based therapies during normothermic ex-vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP), a method for assessment and treatment of injured donor lungs, inactivates HCV virus in a short period of time. Such treatment is shown to be safe using a large animal EVLP-to-lung transplantation model. This strategy of treating viral infection in a donor organ during preservation could significantly increase the availability of organs for transplantation and encourages further clinical development.
8 Hypericin-photodynamic therapy inhibits the growth of adult T-cell leukemia cells through induction of apoptosis and suppression of viral transcription
Background
Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive neoplasm caused by human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). ATL carries a poor prognosis due to chemotherapy resistance. Thus, it is urgent to develop new treatment strategies. Hypericin (HY) is a new-type of photosensitizer in the context of photodynamic therapy (PDT) due to its excellent photosensitizing properties and anti-tumor activities.
Conclusions
Our results revealed that hypericin-PDT is highly effective against ATL cells by induction of apoptosis and suppression of viral transcription. These studies highlight the promising use of hypericin-PDT as a targeted therapy for ATL