Chen X, Yang M, Chen Y, et al. Genetic engineering of systemically injectable oncolytic viruses for pyroptosis-accelerated cancer virotherapy. Nat Cancer 2026; 7(1): 207–223. doi: 10.1038/s43018-025-01078-y.
Delivering therapy specifically to cancer is a major challenge which promises to unlock effective cancer therapies without the detrimental systemic or local off-target effects. Oncolytic virus therapy is an exciting form of targeted immunotherapy which uses genetically engineered or natural viral particles to infect and destroy cancer cells. However, their detection and destruction by the patient’s immune system still offers a barrier to their delivery.
Chen et al set out to engineer oncolytic viruses to express gasdermin, a protein which forms pores in the host cell resulting in cell death through pyroptosis. Alongside this, they created engineered human cell membranes which act to cloak the oncolytic virus from cells which lack key...]]>