Repurposing infectious disease vaccines for intratumoral immunotherapy

Intratumoral delivery of viruses and virus-associated molecular patterns can achieve antitumor effects that are largely mediated by the elicitation or potentiation of immune responses against the malignancy. Attenuated vaccines are approved and marketed as good manufactiring practice (GMP)-manufactured agents whose administration might be able to induce such effects. Recent reports in mouse transplantable tumor models indicate that the rotavirus, influenza and yellow fever vaccines can be especially suitable to elicit powerful antitumor immunity against cancer following intratumoral administration. These results highlight that intratumoral anti-infectious vaccines can turn cold tumors into hot, and underscore the key role played by virus-induced type I interferon pathways to overcome resistance to immune checkpoint-targeted antibodies.