Safety of non-replicative and oncolytic replication-selective HSV vectors - TIMM 2024
Preclinical and clinical studies indicate that immune responses against HSV-1 vectors, oncolytic or non-replicative, do not constitute a major impediment to their efficacy or safety.
Despite oHSV replication in tumors and their elicited immune responses, they have proved to be very safe and well-tolerated in cancer patients.
In contrast to early safety concerns, current non-replicative gene therapy vectors, which often express only the therapeutic transgene(s), are safe and elicit only limited immune responses.
Seropositivity and immune responses against HSV do not lead to the elimination of either HSV or infected cells, and the vectors can be re-administered several times.
Three HSV-1 vectors have already been approved, two for cancer therapy and one for gene therapy.
Other HSV-1 vectors are currently being clinically tested, and serious adverse events linked to the vector have not been observed.
Alberto L. Epstein, Samuel D. Rabkin,
Safety of non-replicative and oncolytic replication-selective HSV vectors,
Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2024, ISSN 1471-4914,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2024.05.014