BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Dismantling cancer's immune defense

September 18, 2008 7:00 AM UTC

A team of North American researchers has shown that a class of validated cancer drugs-histone deacetylase inhibitors-could help boost the efficacy of oncolytic viruses, which have been around since the early 1990s but have rarely progressed to late-stage clinical trials. The exact mechanism of the synergy between the viruses and the inhibitors remains to be elucidated, but companies polled by SciBX said the combination showed promise-especially because both classes of therapeutics are well tolerated in cancer patients.

Oncolytic virus company Jennerex Biotherapeutics Inc.,which participated in the research, plans to in-license the findings and is already considering clinical trial designs...