# Optimizing Delivery of Oncolytic Measles Virus Strains with Cell Carriers

> **NIH NIH R01** · MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER · 2020 · $584,773

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of gynecologic cancer death in the U.S. and is responsible for
approximately 14,000 deaths each year in the US. Recurrent disease remains incurable and has a dismal
prognosis. There is an urgent need for novel therapies. We have demonstrated that engineered measles virus
(MV) strains have significant antitumor activity against ovarian cancer lines and xenografts. Their tumor
specificity is due to abundant expression of the measles virus receptors CD46 and Nectin-4 in ovarian cancer.
Our group was the first to translate this approach into two phase I clinical trials of MV derivatives expressing
human carcinoembryonic antigen, MV-CEA (CEA added to facilitate monitoring of viral gene expression) or
NIS (imaging marker of virus replication) in recurrent ovarian cancer patients. Despite the fact that study
patients were platinum and taxane resistant and heavily pretreated, there was evidence of biologic activity, as
indicated by CA-125 decreases, dose dependent disease stabilization, and an overall survival (OS) of 26.6 mo
for patients receiving viral doses at 108 TCID50 or higher. In proof-of-principle studies, we demonstrated that
MV delivery using mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) as carriers can further improve efficacy by protecting the
virus from antibody neutralization and facilitate homing in tumor sites. We propose to test this novel approach
in a phase I/II trial in patients with platinum resistant recurrent ovarian cancer. This innovative clinical trial
proposal represents first in human testing of cell carriers for viral delivery, and has the following goals: 1) to
assess the safety and efficacy of MSC delivered MV-NIS (MV-NIS/MSC) in patients with recurrent platinum
resistant ovarian cancer; 2) to characterize viral gene expression following IP administration of MV-NIS/MSC,
as assessed by NIS expression on imaging, to assess viral distribution/shedding, and to evaluate tumor
biomarkers that can predict the therapeutic effect of this approach; and 3) to characterize the role of the
immune system in determining the efficacy of MV-NIS/MSC virotherapy against ovarian cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9872990
- **Project number:** 5R01CA200507-04
- **Recipient organization:** MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Evanthia Galanis
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $584,773
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-03-02 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9872990

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9872990, Optimizing Delivery of Oncolytic Measles Virus Strains with Cell Carriers (5R01CA200507-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9872990. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*