• Adenoviruses as new tools for treatment of breast cancer
  • Mohammad Shayestehpour,1,* Forough Tavakoli,2 Shaghayegh Yazdani,3
    1. Autoimmune Diseases Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, I.R. Iran
    2. Virology Department, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    3. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Advanced Science & Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Despite the remarkable developments in treatment of malignancy, fighting cancer still remains a serious challenge. It has been recently revealed that some viruses can destroy the tumor cells directly without harming normal healthy cells. An ideal oncolytic virus (OV) should have several characteristics, including high potency for killing of tumor cells, high specificity for targeting cancer cells, and safety to avoid causing serious diseases. With development of genetic engineering and recombinant DNA technology in 1990, these properties are generated in adenoviruses. Today, adenovirus is one of the most popular viruses in cancer therapy. The first approved oncolytic virus for cancer therapy was an engineered adenovirus (H101) by Shanghai Sunway Biotechand. It approved by China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for the treatment of head and neck cancer in 2015. This study aimed to review the advances in treatment of breast cancer by adenoviruses.
  • Methods: We reviewed articles that focused on the viraltherapy of breast cancer by oncolytic adenoviruses published in medical journals.
  • Results: Among more than 100 species of adenoviruse, type 5 (Ad5) is more extensively used in virotherapy. Oncolytic adenoviruses have not been enough selectivity for treatment of breast tumors; therefore, they are engineered by various methods to target effectively breast cancer cells. Adenoviruses carrying five or ten copies of miR145-5p target sites (Ad5-5miR145T, Ad5-10miR145T) were acceptably targeted to breast cancer cells with a low expression level of miR145. The Ad5/EGD/FibΔCAR-HI-Link-ZHZH virus was able to infect selectively HER2 expressing SKBR-3 breast cancer cell line. Oncolytic adenovirus armed with IL-24 was inhibited the growth of breast cancer in vitro and in vivo. Ad5/3-D24-GMCSF in combination with low-dose cyclophosphamide showed promising efficacy in preclinical studies and possible antitumor activity in breast cancer patients. Ad5-24-RGD and Docetaxel had a synergistic effect in killing of breast cancer cells at a lower dose than either agent alone. SG400-E2F/IL-15 adenovirus exhibited an enhanced anti-breast tumor activity both in vitro and in vivo. Adenovirus modified with the CXCL12 ligand provided selective killing of breast cancer cells overexpressing CXCR4 and CXCR7 chemokine receptors. Some oncolytic adenoviruses noted above are in the clinical trial.
  • Conclusion: Extensive research is underway on treatment of breast cancer by oncolytic adenoviruses. Advances in this area of research have been remarkable in recent years. Oncolytic adenoviruses are expected to be commercially available for breast cancer treatment in the future.
  • Keywords: Adenovirus, Breast Cancer, Oncolytic, Tool