Capsid Modified Bluetongue Virus 16 (BTV16) as a Virulytic Oncotherapy Agent

Objective: Using potential viruses to destroy cancer cells has a long history, but recent advances in molecular biology raised hopes for successful use of these viruses again. Methods: Octreotate sequence was inserted into the neutralization region (R1& R2) in vp2 protein of capsid segment in 10 segmented genome of BTV in 304 - 368 position. T7 BTV RNA transcripts were extracted. Cancerous cultured cells were transfected with wild and modified BTV to recover BTV with cDNA-derived genome segments. Results: The results of all the performed experiments revealed that treatment of AGS cell lines with VP2 modified BTV16, which targeted cell surface of cancerous cells, significantly increased apoptosis in cancer infected cells. Conclusions: Modified VP2 BTV16 may be used as a potential virulytic oncotherapy agent in AGS cells.