Using oncolytic viruses to eliminate tumor cells, Shanghai’s innovative drug results appear in Nature magazine
Shanghai’s innovative drug results published in Nature magazine
Eliminate tumor cells with oncolytic viruses
Recently, the top international scientific journal "Nature" published the results of the cooperation between Zhongsheng Fornogen Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. They used the oncolytic virus VG161 developed by Fornogen Biotech to treat patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, which significantly prolonged the patient's survival and was safe.
In September last year, the oncolytic virus VG161 was awarded "Breakthrough Therapy Drug Designation" by the Drug Evaluation Center of the National Medical Products Administration. At present, this original new drug has completed Phase II registration clinical research and is about to start key registration clinical research.
Dr. Jia Weiguo, the company's founder and chief scientist, said that there are some oncolytic viruses in nature that can break into the hypoxic and immunosuppressive areas inside tumors and show anti-tumor potential by activating the body's own immune system. After the rise of genetic science and technology, scientists began to use this technology to modify oncolytic viruses to enhance their targeting of tumors and provide them with "foreign aid" that can collaboratively eliminate tumor cells. Currently, four oncolytic virus drugs have been approved for marketing around the world and are used to treat melanoma, head and neck tumors, etc.
Compared with oncolytic virus drugs that are already on the market, VG161 has more "foreign aid" genes, carrying four exogenous immune regulatory genes including interleukin 12 and interleukin 15, as well as PD-L1 blocking peptide. Under the guidance of B-ultrasound, after this candidate new drug is injected into the patient's lesion, the oncolytic virus will continue to replicate and cooperate with four "genetic weapons" to lyse many tumor cells and activate the body's specific anti-tumor immune response to achieve the effect of "intratumoral vaccination." In clinical studies, the scientific research team found that VG161 has a "remote effect", that is, after being injected into the patient's lesions, it will cause the shrinkage of non-injected lesions in other parts. This shows that local administration can stimulate a systemic immune response, with an effect similar to that of a vaccine, and has irreplaceable therapeutic potential for refractory and drug-resistant tumors.
A paper in Nature magazine showed that among 34 patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who failed all standard treatments, VG161 monotherapy had an objective response rate of 17.65% and a disease control rate of 64.71%. In the cohort of patients who failed second-line treatment, the median survival was 9.4 months, which was significantly better than the 4.7-month survival of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma at the same baseline. Among them, 22 patients in the subgroup who had received immunotherapy for more than three months before enrollment and failed, had a median survival time of 17.3 months.
"What is gratifying is that the median survival time of 11 patients who received failed standard treatments again after leaving the VG161 treatment group exceeded 20 months." Zhao Ronghua said, "This shows that VG161 treatment can reshape the tumor immune microenvironment and reactivate the body's response to standard treatments."
(Source: Liberation Daily reporter Yu Taoran)