Permissiveness of human cancer cells to oncolytic bovine herpesvirus 1 is mediated in part by KRAS activity.

UNLABELLED: Oncolytic viruses (OVs) are attractive avenues of cancer therapy due to the absence of toxic side effects often seen with current treatment modalities. Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) is a species-specific virus that does not induce cytotoxicity in normal primary human cells but can infect and kill various human immortalized and transformed cell lines. To gain a better understanding of the oncolytic breadth of BHV-1, the NCI panel of established human tumor cell lines was screened for sensitivity to the virus. Overall, 72% of the panel is permissive to BHV-1 infection, with corresponding decreases in cellular viability. This sensitivity is in comparison to a sensitivity of only 32% for a herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1)-based oncolytic vector. Strikingly, while 35% of the panel supports minimal or no BHV-1 replication, significant decreases in cellular viability still occur. These data suggest that BHV-1 is an OV with tropism for multiple tumor types and is able to induce cytotoxicity independent of significant virus replication. In contrast to other species-specific OVs, cellular sensitivity to BHV-1 does not correlate with type I interferon (IFN) signaling; however, mutations in KRAS were found to correlate with high levels of virus replication. The knockdown or overexpression of KRAS in human tumor cell lines yields modest changes in viral titers; however, overexpression of KRAS in normal primary cells elicits permissivity to BHV-1 infection. Together, these data suggest that BHV-1 is a broad-spectrum OV with a distinct mechanism of tumor targeting. IMPORTANCE: Cancer remains a significant health issue, and novel treatments are required, particularly for tumors that are refractory to conventional therapies. Oncolytic viruses are a novel platform given their ability to specifically target tumor cells while leaving healthy cells intact. For this strategy to be successful, a fundamental understanding of virus-host interactions is required. We previously identified bovine herpesvirus 1 as a novel oncolytic virus with many unique and clinically relevant features. Here, we show that BHV-1 can target a wide range of human cancer types, most potently lung cancer. In addition, we show that enhanced KRAS activity, a hallmark of many cancers, is one of the factors that increases BHV-1 oncolytic capacity. These findings hold potential for future treatments, particularly in the context of lung cancer, where KRAS mutations are a negative predictor of treatment efficacy.