ONCOLYTIC VIRUSES Oncolytic viruses have been introduced in cancer treatment in the last two decades,offering new opportunities and hopes for ultimate therapy.Earlier studies had also tried to take advantage of the antineoplastic activity of natural viral species,but it was genetic engineering that led to the production of modified viral strains selectively infecting and killing neoplastic cells.[1] The two major characteristics of oncolytic viruses are their tropism for malignant cells and their augmented cytotoxicity.The strategies employed to achieve oncotropism involve mainly genetic manipulation of viral vectors in order to either turn them against cells expressing specific surface markers or make them capable to multiply only using the machinery of malignant cells.[2] Despite the capability of specifically targeting neoplastic cells,oncolytic viruses are,usually,not capable to completely demise all malignant cells neither in vivo nor in vitro.
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