Oncolytic viruses are designed to replicate in and kill cancer cells, and have shown tremendous promise in preclinical and clinical studies. Indeed, several oncolytic viruses are available to patients in a number of different countries around the world. However, most oncolytic viruses show a poor ability to spread throughout the tumor mass, frequently leading to only a partial response and regrowth of the tumor. One approach to improve spread of the viral effect throughout the tumor mass is to arm the oncolytic virus with a fusogenic protein. In this manner, a single infected cell can fuse with many adjacent uninfected cells, essentially amplifying the anti-tumor effects. In this review, we discuss the development and use of fusogenic proteins to enhance the efficacy of human adenovirus-based vectors for cancer therapy.

溶瘤病毒旨在复制并杀死癌细胞，并在临床前和临床研究中显示出巨大的前景。事实上，世界上许多不同国家的患者都可以使用几种溶瘤病毒。然而，大多数溶瘤病毒表现出在整个肿瘤块中传播的能力很差，经常导致肿瘤的部分反应和再生。一种改善病毒效应在整个肿瘤块中传播的方法是用融合蛋白武装溶瘤病毒。以这种方式，单个受感染的细胞可以与许多相邻的未感染细胞融合，从而基本上放大了抗肿瘤作用。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了融合蛋白的开发和使用，以提高基于人类腺病毒的载体在癌症治疗中的功效。