[2] AAV is a non-pathogenic virus, so it is currently being investigated for many gene therapy applications including oncolytic cancer treatments due to its relatively safe nature.
AAV also has little risk for insertional mutagenesis, a common problem when dealing with viral vectors, as its transgenes are normally expressed episomally.
[7] By inserting an infection blocking tetra-aspartic acid residue into the capsid flanked by MMP cleavable sequences, a lab has developed a protease activatable virus (PAV) using AAV.
In the presence of high concentrations of MMPs, the cleavable sequences are removed and the virus is “un-locked”, allowing infection in the neighboring diseased cells.
[10] AAV-2-TRAIL: The tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been studied when delivered by AAV serotype 2 capsids on human cancer cell lines.
[11] AAV-2-HSV-TK: Herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) is a common anti-cancer therapy that converts the ganciclovir (GCV) into the toxic GCV-triphosphate within cells expressing the enzyme.
[15] AAV-DC-CTL: A clinical trial is currently in Phase I investigation of Oncolytic AAV treatments for stage IV gastric cancer in China.