Enhancement of Oncolytic Activity of Ohsv Expressing IL-12 and Anti PD-1 Antibody by Concurrent Administration of Exosomes Carrying CTLA-4 MiRNA

Systemic administration of checkpoint inhibitors alone and especially concurrent with intratumoral administration of oncolytic herpesviruses (oHSV) has a major impact on cancer therapy marred by rare failures of healthy organs. Furthermore, tumors vary with respect to susceptibility to oncolytic effects of oHSV. Here we report the construction and properties of 3 families of oncolytic herpes simplex viruses expressing no immunomodulatory genes (T1 series), murine IL-12 (T2 series) or murine or human IL-12 and anti PD-1 antibody (T3 series). We report that insertion of the gene encoding PD-1 Ab significantly augmented the oncolytic activity of oHSV bereft of immunostimulatory genes (T1 series) or expressing IL-12 alone (T2 series). The T3 oHSV expressed IL-12, PD-1 Ab were restricted to the tumor bed whereas the induced IFN-γ accumulated to high levels both in tumor bed and in blood. Furthermore, the T3 oHSV was superior to systemic administration of IL-12 and antibody to PD-1. This report also shows that the oncolytic activity of T3 oHSV in a relatively resistant tumor was enhanced by concurrent intratumoral administration of genetically engineered exosomes carrying miRNA targeting CTLA-4 checkpoint.