Abstract
The incidence of lymphomas developing in both immunocompetent and immunosuppressed patients continues to steadily increase worldwide. Current chemotherapy and immunotherapy approaches have several limitations, such as severe side toxicity and selection of resistant cell variants. Autonomous parvoviruses (PVs), in particular the rat parvovirus H-1PV, have emerged as promising anticancer agents. Although it is apathogenic in humans, H-1PV has been shown to infect and suppress various rat and human tumors in animal models. In this study, we demonstrate the capacity of H-1PV for efficiently killing, through necrosis, cell cultures originating from Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), while sparing normal B lymphocytes. The cytotoxic effect was generally accompanied by a productive H-1PV infection. Remarkably, parvovirus-based monotherapy efficiently suppressed established BL at an advanced stage in a severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse model of the disease. The data show for the first time that an oncolytic parvovirus deserves further consideration as a potential tool for the treatment of some non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas, including those resistant to apoptosis induction by rituximab.