Cellular fate of a plant virus immunotherapy candidate
Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) is a plant virus that is currently being developed for intratumoral immunotherapy. CPMV relieves the immune system from tumor-induced immunosuppression; reprograms the tumor microenvironment to an activated state whereby the treated and distant tumors are recognized and eradicated. Toward translational studies, we investigated the safety of CPMV, specifically addressing whether pathogenicity would be induced in mammalian cells. We show that murine macrophage immune cells recognize CPMV; however, there is no indication of de novo viral protein synthesis or RNA replication. Furthermore, we show that CPMV does not induce hemolysis, platelet aggregation and plasma coagulation amongst other assays in human blood and immune cells. Taken together, we anticipate that these results will reinforce the development of CPMV as an immunotherapeutic platform.
Authors
- Jie Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4049-0991)
- Zhongchao Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-6677)
- Michael Sierk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0657-0288)
- Sweta Karan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4989-313X)
- Nicole F. Steinmetz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0130-0481)
- Daoud Meerzaman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0129-5256)
- Marina A. Dobrovolskaia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4233-9227)
- Anthony O. Omole (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2323-2790)
- Jessica Fernanda Affonso de Oliveira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5474-2355)
- Barry W. Neun
- Lucas Sutorus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7380-1843)
- Qingrong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1325-6147)
- Edward Cedrone
- Jeffrey D. Clogston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6150-3904)
Institutions
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (US)
- La Jolla Bioengineering Institute (US)
- National Cancer Institute (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Biology
- Published
- 2024-10-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06982-0
- Citations
- 15
- Primary Topic
- Plant Virus Research Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.99
Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- American Cancer Society
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- F. M. Kirby Foundation
- James N. Kirby Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- University of California, San Diego
- National Cancer Institute