Ras signaling in cancers

Patent Pending Reovirus was noted to be a potential cancer therapeutic when early studies on reovirus suggested it reproduces well in certain cancer cell lines. It has since been shown to replicate specifically in cells that have an activated Ras pathway (a cellular signaling pathway that is involved in cell growth and differentiation).[24] Reovirus replicates in and eventually kills Ras-activated tumour cells and as cell death occurs, progeny virus particles are free to infect surrounding cancer cells. This cycle of infection, replication and cell death is believed to be repeated until all tumour cells carrying an activated Ras pathway are destroyed. Another tumor lysing virus that specifically targets tumor cells with an activated Ras pathway is a type II herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) based agent, designated FusOn-H2.