Virally programmed extracellular vesicles sensitize cancer cells to oncolytic virus and small molecule therapy

Recent advances in cancer therapeutics clearly demonstrate the need for innovative multiplex therapies that attack the tumour on multiple fronts. Oncolytic or “cancer-killing” viruses (OVs) represent up-and-coming multi-mechanistic immunotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of cancer. In this study, we perform an in-vitro screen based on virus-encoded artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs) and find that a unique amiRNA, herein termed amiR-4, confers a replicative advantage to the VSVΔ51 OV platform. Target validation of amiR-4 reveals ARID1A, a protein involved in chromatin remodelling, as an important player in resistance to OV replication. Virus-directed targeting of ARID1A coupled with small-molecule inhibition of the methyltransferase EZH2 leads to the synthetic lethal killing of both infected and uninfected tumour cells. The bystander killing of uninfected cells is mediated by intercellular transfer of extracellular vesicles carrying amiR-4 cargo. Altogether, our findings establish that OVs can serve as replicating vehicles for amiRNA therapeutics with the potential for combination with small molecule and immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. RNA-based viruses can be engineered to express artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs). Here, the authors identify a candidate amiRNA that confers a replicative advantage to oncolytic viruses, enhancing their anticancer potency, and show that intercellular transfer of extracellular vesicles carrying the amiRNA promotes bystander killing of uninfected cancer cells.