{"id":200,"date":"2025-07-22T10:57:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/?p=200"},"modified":"2025-07-22T11:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T08:00:48","slug":"oncolytic-hsv-presented-in-berlin-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/2025\/07\/22\/oncolytic-hsv-presented-in-berlin-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Oncolytic HSV presented in Berlin this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I will be attending the 49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop Conference in Berlin, Germany. My poser &#8221;HSV VECTOR EXPRESSING A VARIANT OF HAS2 GENE EXHIBITS ENHANCED ONCOLYTIC EFFECT AND TUMOR SUPPRESSOR RESPONSE&#8221; will be presented at 27. July 2025. The poster will be visible for comments here in the blog during the conference. Here&#8217;s the abstract in advance:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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 <em>has2<\/em> gene, we developed an attenuated replication competent HSV vector expressing the <em>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<p>In our recent study, we infected U373MG cells in T-25 bottles and 6-well plates with 1 pfu\/cell and U373MG xenografts <em>in ovo<\/em> with 0.1 \u2013 0.25 * 10<sup>6<\/sup> pfu of an HSV vector expressing the <em>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. <em>p53<\/em> gene expression was measured with RT-qPCR. The sizes of the tumor xenografts were measured at 72 hpi.<\/p>\n<p>Our results show that this HSV vector causes over 70 % increase in the production of HMW-HA, concomitantly elevating <em>p53<\/em> expression two-fold in U373MG cells. The vector also seems to be capable of suppressing tumor xenograft growth <em>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 (0.004).<\/p>\n<p>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<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.herpesvirusworkshop.com\/2025\/agenda\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-198\" src=\"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1424\/2025\/07\/promo_image-300x158.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1424\/2025\/07\/promo_image-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1424\/2025\/07\/promo_image-1024x538.png 1024w, https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1424\/2025\/07\/promo_image-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1424\/2025\/07\/promo_image.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>References<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Palom\u00e4ki, J., Kalke, K., Orpana, J., Lund, L., Frejborg, F., Paavilainen, H., J\u00e4rvel\u00e4inen, H., &amp; 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. [<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/microorganisms11112657\">doi<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Palom\u00e4ki, J., Hukkanen, V., &amp; J\u00e4rvel\u00e4inen, H. (2024). Kaljumyyrik\u00f6n sy\u00f6p\u00e4resistenssi ja sen sovellutusmahdollisuudet tulevaisuuden l\u00e4\u00e4kekehityksess\u00e4. Solubiologi, 2024(2), 14\u201321. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.suomensolubiologit.fi\/solubiologi-lehti\/\">www<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>Kalke, K., Orpana, J., Lasanen, T., Esparta, O., Lund, L. M., Frejborg, F., Vuorinen, T., Paavilainen, H., &amp; Hukkanen, V. (2022). The In Vitro Replication, Spread, and Oncolytic Potential of Finnish Circulating Strains of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1. Viruses, 14(6). [<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/v14061290\">doi<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I will be attending the 49th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop Conference in Berlin, Germany. My poser &#8221;HSV VECTOR EXPRESSING A VARIANT OF HAS2 GENE EXHIBITS ENHANCED ONCOLYTIC EFFECT AND TUMOR SUPPRESSOR RESPONSE&#8221; will be presented at 27. July 2025. The poster will be visible for comments here in the blog during the conference. Here&#8217;s the &#8230;<a class=\"post-readmore\" href=\"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/2025\/07\/22\/oncolytic-hsv-presented-in-berlin-this-weekend\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6791,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","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\/200","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=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/users.utu.fi\/jmmpal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}