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REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1455163

Oncolytic Virus and CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors

Provisionally accepted
Eleonora Ponterio Eleonora Ponterio 1,2*Tobias L. Haas Tobias L. Haas 2,3Ruggero De Maria Ruggero De Maria 2,4
  • 1 National Institute of Health (ISS), Rome, Italy
  • 2 Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Rome, Sicily, Italy
  • 3 Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine (IIGM), Turin, Piedmont, Italy
  • 4 Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic (IRCCS), Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Adoptive immunotherapy with T cells, genetically modified to express a tumor-reactive chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), is an innovative and rapidly developing life-saving treatment for cancer patients without other therapeutic opportunities. CAR-T cell therapy has proven effective only in hematological malignancies. However, although by now only a few clinical trials had promising outcomes, we predict that CAR-T therapy will eventually become an established treatment for several solid tumors. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) can selectively replicate in and kill cancer cells without harming healthy cells. They can stimulate an immune response against the tumor, because OVs potentially stimulate adaptive immunity and innate components of the host immune system. Using CAR-T cells along with oncolytic viruses may enhance the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy in destroying solid tumors by increasing the tumor penetrance of T cells and reducing the immune suppression by the tumor microenvironment. This review describes recent advances in the design of oncolytic viruses and CAR-T cells while providing an overview of the potential combination of oncolytic virotherapy with CAR-T cells for solid cancers. In this review, we will focus on the hostvirus interaction in the tumor microenvironment to reverse local immunosuppression and to develop CAR-T cell effector function.Cancer treatment has undergone a radical transformation thanks to groundbreaking advancements in research and drug development. While chemotherapy once stood as the primary treatment, targeting rapidly dividing cancer cells, it also affected proliferating healthy cells, such as those of the epithelial and hematopoietic compartments. However, the advent of molecular profiling and understanding of

    Keywords: CAR T cells, Oncolytic Viruses, Cancer, Immunotherapy, Solid tumor

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 08 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ponterio, Haas and De Maria. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Eleonora Ponterio, National Institute of Health (ISS), Rome, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.