In this webinar, Dr. Muñoz-Alía explains how the measles virus can be engineered to target tumors as an oncolytic virus (OV). One of the main challenges in using the measles virus as an OV is the presence of neutralizing antibodies resulting from childhood measles vaccination.

To effectively direct the measles virus to specific tumors, viral envelope proteins from the canine distemper virus are inserted to replace the measles virus membrane fusion proteins. This gene therapy approach demonstrates efficient transduction of tumor cells while avoiding the neutralizing antibody response in myeloma and ovarian cancer animal models.