Oncolytic virus expressing an ARID1A inhibitor for cancer

An oncolytic virus encoding an miRNA-based inhibitor of the chromatin regulator ARID1A could help treat cancer. Screening a library of replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) strains engineered to express artificial miRNAs, followed by computational miRNA target prediction, identified an artificial miRNA ARID1A inhibitor that increased oncolytic virus growth and decreased viability in a panel of tumor cell lines, but not in normal fibroblasts.

In xenograft mouse models of pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer, an oncolytic virus expressing the artificial miRNA increased viral replication in tumor cells without loss of tumor specificity, and increased survival and decreased tumor growth compared with a virus encoding a control miRNA...