Potentiating oncolytic viral therapy through an understanding of the initial immune responses to oncolytic viral infection

Despite the challenge of implementing oncolytic viral therapy into mainstream clinical use, the obstacles of early clinical trials have outlined numerous areas requiring additional investigation. In particular, the role of innate and adaptive immunity has received significant attention in this context. It is increasingly clear that a one-sided approach of either immune suppression or robust immune cell activation is not the answer for clinical success. Rather, recent studies are increasingly demonstrating the delicate balance between both anti-viral immune suppression and immune mediated tumor killing. In this review we focus on aspects of innate immune cell activation following oncolytic viral infection and how this response has the potential of bridging to the broader goal of viral mediated imunotherapy.