Transductional Targeting of oncolytic adenoviruses by CARex-pSia adapter molecules improves therapy of pSia-expressing tumors and reduces viral liver load

Polysialic acid (pSia) is a cell surface antigen that plays an important role in neuronal development but is not expressed in most adult tissues. However, expression of pSia is reactivated during oncogenesis of several cancers of neuroendocrine origin including glioblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). pSia therefore represents an excellent tumor selective target for oncolytic adenovirus-based therapies. In this study, we developed a strategy to retarget oncolytic Adenoviruses (OAV) to pSia-expressing tumors using a recombinant bispecific adapter protein. To generate the adapter molecule…