Treatment of murine tumors with recombinant Myxoma viruses
type: CreativeWork
description: Oncolytic viruses are designed to be novel cancer treatments that not only specifically target cancer cells, but can act as vectors to express proteins of interest within the tumor bed. Myxoma virus (MYXV), a rabbit-specific poxvirus, was evaluated as an oncolytic viral treatment for cancer in immunocompetent mouse models of cancer. In addition, a recombinant MYXV that expresses the murine gene for interleukin 15 (IL-15) was also used, in order to determine if increased expression of IL-15 within the tumor bed could improve MYXV treatment by recruiting additional anti-tumor immune cells to the tumor. In vitro experiments evaluated MYXV infectivity in murine melanoma, glioma, and lymphoma cells using a recombinant MYXV that expresses the fluorescent protein tdTomato (MYXV:Tomato). These studies indicated that B16-F10 melanoma cells were fully-permissive to MYXV infection, while GL261 glioma cells were partially permissive, and EL4 cells were non-permissive. All stages of virus morphology were observed in the permissive cells and there was evidence of cell-to-cell spread of MYXV. Other studies have shown that the susceptibility of human cancer cell lines to MYXV infection depends on the presence of phosphorylated Akt, which was present in the B16-F10 melanoma and GL261 glioma cell lines. Cancer cell death occurred following infection with MYXV and was likely due to cell lysis and necrosis as apoptosis was not evident at 48 hours post infection. Initial in vivo studies using immunocompetent mice bearing intracranial melanoma or lymphoma tumors demonstrated that a single inoculation of intratumoral (IT) MYXV:Tomato was safe but did not produce any significant increase in survival, while studies using intracranial GL261 were inconclusive. However, other studies have shown that MYXV treatment of melanoma not located in the brain can increase survival if multiple injections are given. Therefore, weekly IT injections of MYXV or MYXV expressing the gene for murine IL-15 (MYX…
abstract: Oncolytic viruses are designed to be novel cancer treatments that not only specifically target cancer cells, but can act as vectors to express proteins of interest within the tumor bed. Myxoma virus (MYXV), a rabbit-specific poxvirus, was evaluated as an oncolytic viral treatment for cancer in immunocompetent mouse models of cancer. In addition, a recombinant MYXV that expresses the murine gene for interleukin 15 (IL-15) was also used, in order to determine if increased expression of IL-15 within the tumor bed could improve MYXV treatment by recruiting additional anti-tumor immune cells to the tumor. In vitro experiments evaluated MYXV infectivity in murine melanoma, glioma, and lymphoma cells using a recombinant MYXV that expresses the fluorescent protein tdTomato (MYXV:Tomato). These studies indicated that B16-F10 melanoma cells were fully-permissive to MYXV infection, while GL261 glioma cells were partially permissive, and EL4 cells were non-permissive. All stages of virus morphology were observed in the permissive cells and there was evidence of cell-to-cell spread of MYXV. Other studies have shown that the susceptibility of human cancer cell lines to MYXV infection depends on the presence of phosphorylated Akt, which was present in the B16-F10 melanoma and GL261 glioma cell lines. Cancer cell death occurred following infection with MYXV and was likely due to cell lysis and necrosis as apoptosis was not evident at 48 hours post infection. Initial in vivo studies using immunocompetent mice bearing intracranial melanoma or lymphoma tumors demonstrated that a single inoculation of intratumoral (IT) MYXV:Tomato was safe but did not produce any significant increase in survival, while studies using intracranial GL261 were inconclusive. However, other studies have shown that MYXV treatment of melanoma not located in the brain can increase survival if multiple injections are given. Therefore, weekly IT injections of MYXV or MYXV expressing the gene for murine IL-15 (MYX…
author: Doty, Rosalinda
language: en
keywords: cancer, interleukin-15, Melanoma, myxoma virus, oncolytic virus, neutrophils, C57BL/6 mouse, B16-F10
date published: 2012-09-18T21:20:12Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:31Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/34496