“Since pevonedistat is currently being tested in human clinical trials, and various cancer-fighting viruses are also in clinical trials, it would be very exciting to combine the two together and see if we can improve outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo. New research led by Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo’s group shows that a compound called pevonedistat, which is currently showing promise in cancer clinical trials, could boost the activity of cancer-fighting viruses.
The study, carried out by MD/PhD student Boaz Wong, also shows for the first time that pevonedistat blocks the interferon pathway, which plays a crucial role in helping the body defend itself against both viruses and cancer. Using human and mouse cancer cells lines, as well as primary human tumour samples, the research team found that pevonedistat increases the sensitivity of cancer cells to a cancer-fighting virus called VSVΔ51. The combination of virus and pevonedistat also improved therapeutic outcomes in mouse cancer models that are resistant to virus treatment alone.
“Since pevonedistat is currently being tested in human clinical trials, and various cancer-fighting viruses are also in clinical trials, it would be very exciting to combine the two together and see if we can improve outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Jean-Simon Diallo, senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
See Molecular Therapy for details.
Authors: Wong B, Bergeron A, Maznyi G, Ng K, Jirovec A, Birdi HK, Serrano D, Spinelli M, Thomson M, Taha Z, Alwithenani A, Chen A, Lorimer I, Vanderhyden B, Arulanandam R, Diallo JS.
Funders: Terry Fox Research Institute, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Cancer Society, Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation, Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award. All research at The Ottawa Hospital is also enabled by generous donors to The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
Core resources: Cell Biology and Image Acquisition
The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa. All researchers at The Ottawa Hospital follow a Responsible Innovation framework for developing and commercializing innovations in a responsible way. Researchers involved in this study hold patents related to this work.
