Oncolytic herpes virus (original) (raw)

Many variants of herpes simplex virus have been considered for viral therapy of cancer; the early development of these was thoroughly reviewed in the journal Cancer Gene Therapy in 2002. This page describes (in the order of development) the most notable variants—those tested in clinical trials: G207, HSV1716, NV1020 and Talimogene laherparepvec (previously Oncovex-GMCSF). These attenuated versions are constructed by deleting viral genes required for infecting or replicating inside normal cells but not cancer cells, such as ICP34.5, ICP6/UL39, and ICP47.