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Enhancing Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Cowpea Mosaic Virus as an Adjuvant Therapy
Introduction
Faisal Al-Qawasmi discusses his CIO2023 abstract, "CIO 2023-3 Enhancing Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma With Cowpea Mosaic Virus as an Adjuvant Therapy."
Transcript
So, my name is Faisal Al-Khwaismi, I'm a student at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and our poster was the potential use of calpimosaic virus as an adjuvant after cryoablation of hepatocellular carcinoma. So, hepatocellular carcinoma is about the sixth most prevalent cancer worldwide and it dominates the primary liver cancers cases. Despite being relatively common, it has a pretty poor 5-year survival prognosis of about 20%.
Research has always been conducted to investigate, you know, different systemic treatment and surgical interventions like resection and transplantation and then as well as emerging immunotherapies like tyrosine kinase inhibitors in order to try and improve the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
In our poster, we looked into the potential use of cowpea mosaic virus, a plant virus, in conjunction with cryoablation as a possible therapeutic avenue for hepatocellular carcinoma. So our investigation entailed a comprehensive review focusing on CFPMV's efficacy against various cancer types and including against current therapeutic models. So amongst the studies, they employed various methodologies including murine and canine models and among what we found was that CPMV showcased effectiveness across a wide spectrum of cancers which included hepatocellular carcinoma, ovarian, colon, and breast cancers.
In one model, a murine ovarian cancer model, CPMV when combined with irradiated tumor cells yielded the best result at about a 75% survival rate as compared to the untreated model which was a 0% survival rate. And within that group of the 75% survival rate, after tumor re-challenges, survival rates remained at 100%. In the same study, CPMV was put up against a currently FDA-approved adjuvant, monophosphoryl lipid, and it was found to significantly outperform in extending the survival length of the mice. And then most notably is the most recent study which was a hepatocellular carcinoma mouse model in which they combined cryoablation and CPMV and what was found was that it was the most potent treatment inhibiting tumor growth without actually heightening toxicity. And then CPMV in general, though the exact mechanism isn't really clear, has been shown to lead to a better prognosis by increasing CD8 to Treg ratios, most likely affecting the helper T-cell or the killer T-cells, as well as down-regulating any Treg cells, meaning it can help avoid immune exhaustion classically associated with cancers.
While CPMV does improve the lymphocytic infiltration of tumors, it also does reduce CXCL1 levels, which is a chemoattractant of neutrophils. And this is beneficial because it reduces unwanted inflammation and complication of treatment. And in summary, cowpea mosaic virus in surgery with cryoablation emerges as one of the new compelling therapeutic strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma. And these findings, you know, kind of offer an exciting prospect for future research and improving survival rates associated with hepatocellular carcinoma. And our personal session after the research was to include exploration of combining cryoablation with CPMV as well as irradiated cancer cell adjuvant with the possibility of considering of adding PD-1 inhibitors to further reduce immune system exhaustion or shutdown.
Thank you.
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