Construction and properties of a herpes simplex virus 1 designed to enter cells solely via the IL-13α2 receptor

Current design of genetically engineered viruses for selective destruction of cancer cells is based on the observation that attenuated viruses replicate better in tumor cells than in normal cells. The ideal virus, however, is one that can infect only cancer cells by virtue of altered host range. Such a virus can be made more robust than the highly attenuated viruses used in clinical trials. Earlier, we reported the construction of a recombinant herpes simplex virus 1 (R5111) in which the capacity to bind heparan sulfate was disabled and which contained a chimeric IL-13-glycoprotein D that enabled the virus to infect cells expressing the IL-13 alpha 2 receptor (IL-13R alpha 2) commonly found on the surface of malignant glioblastomas or high-grade astrocytomas. In the earlier report, we showed that the recombinant R5111 was able to enter and infect cells via the interaction of the chimeric glycoprotein D with IL-13R alpha 2 but that the virus retained the capacity to bind and replicate in cells expressing the natural viral receptors HveA or nectin-1. Here, we report the construction of a recombinant virus (R5141) that can only enter and replicate in cells that express the IL-13R alpha 2. The recombinant R5141 does not depend on endocytosis to infect cells. It does not infect cells expressing HveA or nectin-1 receptors or cells expressing IL-13R alpha 2 that had been exposed to soluble IL-13 before infection. The studies described here show that the host range of herpes simplex viruses can be altered by genetic manipulation to specifically target cancer cells.