Poliovirus Attenuated Strains as a Possible Candidate for Cancer Therapy

he understanding of cancer continues to expand and with thegrowing urgency to find effective treatments, the discovery of medications that can disrupt the disease's aggressiveness holds immense importance. Live attenuated viral vaccines and oncolytic virotherapy offer promising avenues in cancer treatment. These vaccines and therapies work in various ways, including serving as vehicles to deliver inflammatory and immune-modulatory cytokines, presenting tumor-associated antigens, triggering "danger signals" to alter the tumor microenvironment, and selectively infecting cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. Clinical trials have explored the potential of several viruses for cancer treatment, with the genetically modified herpes virus, Talimogene laherparepvec, showing promise in melanoma treatment. The attenuated strain of Poliovirus, such as type 1 (Sabin), is known for its success in poliomyelitis vaccination and is now emerging as a novel option for cancer treatment. It employs multiple mechanisms to combat cancer, such as inducing tumor cell lysis through viral replication or the production of lethal viral proteins. Poliovirus is a prototypeof the Entero-virus genus in the Picornaviridaefamily and is notorious for causing poliomyelitis in children due to its affinity for spinal cord motor neurons. Globally, live-attenuated (Sabin) and killed (Salk) vaccines are utilized to control Poliovirus. In conclusion,this study showedthe potential of the polio vaccine as a viable option for cancer treatment, emphasizing its origin, potency against cancer, and its interaction with the immune system.