{"id":193,"date":"2025-07-27T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T07:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/?p=193"},"modified":"2025-07-27T15:55:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T12:55:59","slug":"49th-annual-international-herpesvirus-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/2025\/07\/27\/49th-annual-international-herpesvirus-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

My poster ”HSV VECTOR EXPRESSING A VARIANT OF HAS2 GENE EXHIBITS ENHANCED ONCOLYTIC EFFECT AND TUMOR SUPPRESSOR RESPONSE” is presented at the 49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop Conference at Berlin, Germany 27. July 2025.<\/p>\n

The naked mole rat (NMR) has a long lifespan and low cancer incidence, which are linked to high molecular weight hyaluronan (HMW-HA), produced by a uniquely mutated hyaluronan synthesis 2 (HAS2) protein. To study the anti-cancer mechanism of the mutated has2<\/em> gene, we developed an attenuated replication competent HSV vector expressing the NMR-has2<\/em> gene and showed that our HSV vector causes a markedly enhanced oncolytic effect on U373MG astrocytoma cells compared to other attenuated HSV vectors and a series of wild type HSV strains [1].<\/p>\n

In our recent study, we infected U373MG cells in T-25 bottles and 6-well plates with 1 pfu\/cell and U373MG xenografts in ovo<\/em> with 0.1 \u2013 0.25 * 106<\/sup> pfu of an HSV vector expressing the NMR-has2<\/em> gene. We collected the cells and growth medium at 48 hours post infection (hpi). HA levels from the growth medium were measured by sandwich-type enzyme linked sorbent assay (ELSA) and HA size determination was performed using chromatography. p53<\/em> gene expression was measured with RT-qPCR. The sizes of the tumor xenografts were measured at 72 hpi.<\/p>\n

Our results show that this HSV vector causes over 70 % increase in the production of HMW-HA, concomitantly elevating p53<\/em> expression two-fold in U373MG cells. The vector also seems to be capable of suppressing tumor xenograft growth in ovo<\/em>. At 72 hours post infection (hpi), the mean tumor size of the U373MG xenografts infected with the HSV vector expressing the NMR-has2 gene was less than 50 % compared to the tumors infected with a control virus (p = 0.005) as well as non-infected tumors (p = 0.004).<\/p>\n

In conclusion, our studies highlight the potential of using HSV to utilize the anti-cancer mechanism of the NMR in human cancer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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https:\/\/www.herpesvirusworkshop.com\/2025\/agenda<\/a><\/p>\n

References<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Palom\u00e4ki, J., Kalke, K., Orpana, J., Lund, L., Frejborg, F., Paavilainen, H., J\u00e4rvel\u00e4inen, H., & Hukkanen, V. (2023). Attenuated Replication-Competent Herpes Simplex Virus Expressing an ECM-Modifying Transgene Hyaluronan Synthase 2 of Naked Mole Rat in Oncolytic Gene Therapy. Microorganisms, 11(11), 2657. [doi<\/a>]<\/li>\n
  2. Palom\u00e4ki, J., Hukkanen, V., & J\u00e4rvel\u00e4inen, H. (2024). Kaljumyyrik\u00f6n sy\u00f6p\u00e4resistenssi ja sen sovellutusmahdollisuudet tulevaisuuden l\u00e4\u00e4kekehityksess\u00e4. Solubiologi, 2024(2), 14\u201321. [www<\/a>]<\/li>\n
  3. Kalke, K., Orpana, J., Lasanen, T., Esparta, O., Lund, L. M., Frejborg, F., Vuorinen, T., Paavilainen, H., & Hukkanen, V. (2022). The In Vitro Replication, Spread, and Oncolytic Potential of Finnish Circulating Strains of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1. Viruses, 14(6). [doi<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    My poster ”HSV VECTOR EXPRESSING A VARIANT OF HAS2 GENE EXHIBITS ENHANCED ONCOLYTIC EFFECT AND TUMOR SUPPRESSOR RESPONSE” is presented at the 49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop Conference at Berlin, Germany 27. July 2025. The naked mole rat (NMR) has a long lifespan and low cancer incidence, which are linked to high molecular weight hyaluronan …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6791,"featured_media":199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-english","category-virologia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}