Measles Edmonston Vaccine Strain Derivatives have Potent Oncolytic Activity against Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor affecting children and young adults, and development of metastatic disease is associated with poor prognosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antitumor efficacy of virotherapy with engineered measles virus (MV) vaccine strains in the treatment of osteosarcoma. Cell lines derived from pediatric patients with osteosarcoma (HOS, MG63, 143B, KHOS-312H, U2-OS and SJSA1) were examined for MV-GFP and MV-NIS gene expression and cytotoxicity as defined by syncytial formation, cell death, and eradication of cell monolayers: significant antitumor activity was demonstrated. Findings were correlated with in vivo efficacy in subcutaneous, orthotopic (tibial bone), and lung metastatic osteosarcoma xenografts treated with the MV derivative MV-NIS via the intratumoral (IT) or intravenous (IV) route. Following treatment, we observed decrease in tumor growth of subcutaneous xenografts (p=0.0374) and prolongation of survival in mice with orthotopic (p<0.0001) and pulmonary metastatic osteosarcoma tumors (p=0.0207). Expression of the NIS transgene in MV-NIS infected tumors allowed for SPECT-CT and PET-CT imaging of virus infected tumors in vivo. Our data support the translational potential of MV-based virotherapy approaches in the treatment of recurrent and metastatic osteosarcoma.