• Insight to virus therapy review articles
  • Asal hatami,1 Saman hakimian,2,*
    1. M.sc student of Pathogenic Microbes Tehran medical Sciences Islamic Azad University
    2. M.sc student of Pathogenic Microbes Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch


  • Introduction: This is how viruses are used as therapeutic agents to treat some diseases. This treatment falls into three categories: 1. Oncolytic virus therapy: A promising strategy against cancer. Oncolytic viruses (OV) can replicate in cancer cells but not in normal cells. Leads to dissolution of the tumor mass. Additionally, the main effect of OV is to stimulate the immune system. In fact, this is a particularly promising new treatment for metastatic cancer. 2. Viral gene therapy (gene transfer): In this method, non-replicating viruses are often used to deliver therapeutic elements to cells of inherited diseases. New genes are introduced into cancer cells or surrounding tissues, causing cell death or slowing the growth of the cancer. This therapy is very flexible, with a wide range of genes and vectors yielding successful results in clinical trials. It has been used, but can also be used alone or in combination with current therapies to make cancer a manageable disease. 3. Viral immunotherapy (immunotherapy): This method uses viruses to introduce specific antigens into the patient's immune system.
  • Methods: Unlike traditional vaccines, which use attenuated or killed viruses or bacteria to generate an immune response, viral immunotherapy uses genetically engineered viruses to deliver specific antigens. Recent clinical trials of 2nd and 3rd generation vaccines have shown promising results in a variety of cancers including lung, prostate, pancreatic and melanoma. New treatment options need to be developed to reduce or eliminate cancer mortality. For example, systemic toxicity of chemotherapy regimens, although less severe than in the past, often causes acute and delayed nausea, stomatitis, and mild cognitive impairment. Treatments for metastatic prostate cancer, while prolonging life, often cause hot flashes, sexual lethargy, incontinence, and the risk of fractures. We need new ways to reduce these symptoms and reduce death and cancer pain.
  • Results: Immunotherapy, or boosting the immune system to kill cancer cells, has been studied for more than 100 years. However, conventional immunotherapy has had limited success because cancer cells tend to develop mechanisms to evade immune detection. Various methods of gene therapy are used to overcome this limitation. Currently, gene therapy is used to produce recombinant anti-cancer vaccines. Unlike vaccines for infectious agents, these vaccines do not develop to prevent the disease, but treat or prevent the immunos system from detecting cancer cells. First, sample of sick cancer cells They are well recognized by the immune system. These modified cells are cultivated and destroyed in the laboratory, and the contents of the cells are incorporated into the vaccine. Another new direction in this therapeutic approach is the use of oncolytic vectors to kill cancer. Oncolytic therapy vectors are usually viruses that have been genetically engineered to target and kill cancer cells. They are harmless to the rest of the body and aim only to infect cancer cells and induce cell death through viral replication, expression of cytotoxic proteins and cell lysis. Gene therapy can treat a wide range of inherited and acquired diseases, and viral vectors can become a better treatment method with therapeutic drugs. Currently available viral vectors for gene therapy are various viruses, including adenovirus (AVV) and retrovirus (retroviral vector). Also simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1 Vector), Reovirus and Newcastle disease virus are chosen in many cases because of their natural ability to target cancer as well as ease of genetic manipulation.
  • Conclusion: A wide range of diseases that can benefit from gene therapy, such as viral vectors with special needs (tissue-specific delivery and gene expression) Therefore, it is unlikely that a single vector system will be sufficient for all purposes of gene therapy. It is clear that the future of virus-based vectors is bright, and the potential to fight many human genetic diseases is within reach. But unfortunately, modern medicines are still associated with complications, and for many diseases we have a long way to go before finding the right treatment. However, gene therapy approaches promise an impact on human health in the future.
  • Keywords: AVV- gen therapy- virus therapy- immunothrapy Vector-vaccines