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Simple Summary: Enteroviruses are considered to be promising oncolytic agents towards a variety of human cancers. Enteroviruses comprise polioviruses, coxsackieviruses, and echoviruses. Their efficacy depends on their ability to infect respective tumor cells. As non-enveloped viruses, they can enter cells via different receptors, many of which are expressed in tumors at higher levels. However, understanding the precise role of individual receptors in virus entry is complicated, and often requires the development of knockdown/knockout models. In this review we summarize current concepts about the roles of individual receptors in the entry of enteroviruses into cells, as well as the impact of host RNA-sensing machinery that can activate interferon signaling in response to viral infections. Several other host cell factors are also discussed. Enteroviruses, with their diverse clinical manifestations ranging from mild or asymptomatic infections to severe diseases such as poliomyelitis and viral myocarditis, present a public health threat. However, they can also be used as oncolytic agents. This review shows the intricate relationship between enteroviruses and host cell factors. Enteroviruses utilize specific receptors and coreceptors for cell entry that are critical for infection and subsequent viral replication. These receptors, many of which are glycoproteins, facilitate virus binding, capsid destabilization, and internalization into cells, and their expression defines virus tropism towards various types of cells. Since enteroviruses can exploit different receptors, they have high oncolytic potential for personalized cancer therapy, as exemplified by the antitumor activity of certain enterovirus strains including the bioselected non-pathogenic Echovirus type 7/Rigvir, approved for melanoma treatment. Dissecting the roles of individual receptors in the entry of enteroviruses can provide valuable insights into their potential in cancer therapy. This review discusses the application of gene-targeting techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9 technology to investigate the impact of the loss of a particular receptor on the attachment of the virus and its subsequent internalization. It also summarizes the data on their expression in various types of cancer. By understanding how enteroviruses interact with specific cellular receptors, researchers can develop more effective regimens of treatment, offering hope for more targeted and efficient therapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biogenic polyamines are ubiquitous compounds. Dysregulation of their metabolism is associated with the development of various pathologies, including cancer, hyperproliferative diseases, and infections. The canonical pathway of polyamine catabolism includes acetylation of spermine and spermidine and subsequent acetylpolyamine oxidase (PAOX)-mediated oxidation of acetylpolyamines (back-conversion) or their direct efflux from the cell. PAOX is considered to catalyze a non-rate-limiting catabolic step. Here, we show that PAOX transcription levels are extremely low in various tumor- and non-tumor cell lines and, in most cases, do not change in response to altered polyamine metabolism. Its enzymatic activity is undetectable in the majority of cell lines except for neuroblastoma and low passage glioblastoma cell lines. Treatment of A549 cells with N1,N11-diethylnorspermine leads to PAOX induction, but its contribution to polyamine catabolism remains moderate. We also describe two alternative enzyme isoforms and show that isoform 4 has diminished oxidase activity and isoform 2 is inactive. PAOX overexpression correlates with the resistance of cancer cells to genotoxic antitumor drugs, indicating that PAOX may be a useful therapeutic target. Finally, PAOX is dispensable for the replication of various viruses. These data suggest that a decrease in polyamine levels is achieved predominantly by the secretion of acetylated spermine and spermidine rather than by back-conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative ammonolysis of 3,4-dimethylpyridine on an individual vanadium oxide (V2O5) catalyst and binary vanadium oxide catalysts, modified by additions of SnO2 and ZrO2, has been studied. A connection between СН- acidity of the methyl groups of the substrate in the gaseous phase and in the chemosorbed state and the sequence of their transformation into a cyano group has been established. It has been shown that nucleophilicity of vanadyl oxygen, calculated by the Density Functional Theory method, increases with V2O5 modification by SnO2 and ZrO2 additions. Herewith, an increasing yield of 3- methyl-4-cyanopyridine and imide of pyridine-3,4-dicarboxylic acid was observed. A proposed mechanism of the imide of pyridine-3,4-dicarboxylic acid formation has been discussed

Upon modification of V2O5 with SnO2 or ZrO2, increase in the activity and selectivity of the vanadium-oxide catalyst in the vapor-phase oxidation of 3-methylpyridine into nicotinic acid were observed. It was shown that the promoting effects of SnO2 and ZrO2 were the result of increases under their influence of the proton affinity of the vanadyl oxygen and decreases in the enthalpy of deprotonation of the methyl group of the substrate, connected by a nitrogen atom with the Lewis acidic center (vanadium ion). The given characteristics were calculated by the density functional theory quantum-chemical method. Modification of binary V2O5–SnO2 and V2O5–ZrO2–catalysts by TiO2 addition resulted in a further increase in the nucleophility of the vanadyl oxygen and, as a consequence, an increase in the catalytic activity and selectivity for nicotinic acid formation.

Cancer virotherapy is an alternative therapeutic approach based on the viruses that selectively infect and kill tumor cells. Vaccinia virus (VV) is a member of the Poxviridae, a family of enveloped viruses with a large linear double-stranded DNA genome. The proven safety of the VV strains as well as considerable transgene capacity of the viral genome, make VV an excellent platform for creating recombinant oncolytic viruses for cancer therapy. Furthermore, various genetic modifications can increase tumor selectivity and therapeutic efficacy of VV by arming it with the immune-modulatory genes or proapoptotic molecules, boosting the host immune system, and increasing cross-priming recognition of the tumor cells by T-cells or NK cells. In this review, we summarized the data on bioengineering approaches to develop recombinant VV strains for enhanced cancer immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oncolytic viral therapy is a promising novel approach to cancer treatment. Oncolytic viruses cause tumor regression through direct cytolysis on the one hand and recruiting and activating immune cells on the other. In this study, to enhance the antitumor efficacy of the thymidine kinase-deficient vaccinia virus (VV, Lister strain), recombinant variants encoding bacterial flagellin (subunit B) of Vibrio vulnificus (LIVP-FlaB-RFP), firefly luciferase (LIVP-Fluc-RFP) or red fluorescent protein (LIVP-RFP) were developed. The LIVP-FLuc-RFP strain demonstrated exceptional onco-specificity in tumor-bearing mice, detected by the in vivo imaging system (IVIS). The antitumor efficacy of these variants was explored in syngeneic murine tumor models (B16 melanoma, CT26 colon cancer and 4T1 breast cancer). After intravenous treatment with LIVP-FlaB-RFP or LIVP-RFP, all mice tumor models exhibited tumor regression, with a prolonged survival rate in comparison with the control mice. However, superior oncolytic activity was observed in the B16 melanoma models treated with LIVP-FlaB-RFP. Tumor-infiltrated lymphocytes and the cytokine analysis of the serum and tumor samples from the melanoma-xenografted mice treated with these virus variants demonstrated activation of the host's immune response. Thus, the expression of bacterial flagellin by VV can enhance its oncolytic efficacy against immunosuppressive solid tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]