A Review of Oncolytic Virotherapy as a Developing Approach to Canine Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Oncolytic virotherapy is a novel approach against canine cancers emerging as an improvement from standard chemotherapeutic therapies. Its popularity stems from the virus’s ability to infect, replicate, and kill neoplastic cells without harming normal tissue cells, thus decreasing the chances of post treatment adverse effects. The preferred viruses of choice are either naturally oncolytic, such as reovirus, or genetically modified to target certain molecules, genes or signalling pathways, such as adenovirus and poxviruses. Several strains were derived from the above-mentioned viruses, and evaluated in comparison to different strains within their virus genera and non-related strains from separate virus genera. Therefore, this review aimed to discuss the past and current experiments performed in vitro and in vivo on cell lines retrieved from selected cancer types, on murine xenograft models, and on canine patients enrolled in clinical trials.