Eukaryotic cells respond to unfolded proteins in their endoplasmic reticulum (ER stress), amino acid starvation, or oxidants by phosphorylating the alpha subunit of translation initiation factor 2 (eIF2alpha). This adaptation inhibits general protein synthesis while promoting translation and expression of the transcription factor ATF4. Atf4(-/-) cells are impaired in expressing genes involved in amino acid import, glutathione biosynthesis, and resistance to oxidative stress. Perk(-/-) cells, lacking an upstream ER stress-activated eIF2alpha kinase that activates Atf4, accumulate endogenous peroxides during ER stress, whereas interference with the ER oxidase ERO1 abrogates such accumulation. A signaling pathway initiated by eIF2alpha phosphorylation protects cells against metabolic consequences of ER oxidation by promoting the linked processes of amino acid sufficiency and resistance to oxidative stress.

Oncolytic virotherapy is an emerging treatment modality which uses replication competent viruses to destroy cancers. Advances in the past two years include preclinical proof of feasibility for a single-shot virotherapy cure, identification of drugs that accelerate intratumoral virus propagation, new strategies to maximize the immunotherapeutic potential of oncolytic virotherapy, and clinical confirmation of a critical viremic thereshold for vascular delivery and intratumoral virus replication. The primary clinical milestone was completion of accrual in a phase III trial of intratumoral herpes simplex virus therapy using talimogene laherparepvec for metastatic melanoma. Challenges for the field are to select ‘winners’ from a burgeoning number of oncolytic platforms and engineered derivatives, to transiently suppress but then unleash the power of the immune system to maximize both virus spread and anticancer immunity, to develop more meaningful preclinical virotherapy models and to manufacture viruses with orders of magnitude higher yields compared to established vaccine manufacturing processes.

The interaction of cells with the extracellular matrix regulates cell shape, motility, growth, survival, differentiation and gene expression, through integrin-mediated signal transduction. We used a two-hybrid screen to isolate genes encoding proteins that interact with the beta 1-integrin cytoplasmic domain. The most frequently isolated complementary DNA encoded a new, 59K serine/threonine protein kinase, containing four ankyrin-like repeats. We report here that this integrin-linked kinase (ILK) phosphorylated a beta 1-integrin cytoplasmic domain peptide in vitro and coimmunoprecipitated with beta 1 in lysates of mammalian cells. Endogenous ILK kinase activity was reduced in response to fibronectin. Overexpression of p59ILK disrupted epithelial cell architecture and inhibited adhesion to integrin substrates, while inducing anchorage-independent growth. We propose that ILK is a receptor-proximal protein kinase regulating integrin-mediated signal transduction.

Ideally, an oncolytic virus will replicate preferentially in malignant cells, have the ability to treat disseminated metastases, and ultimately be cleared by the patient. Here we present evidence that the attenuated vesicular stomatitis strains, AV1 and AV2, embody all of these traits. We uncover the mechanism by which these mutants are selectively attenuated in interferon-responsive cells while remaining highly lytic in 80% of human tumor cell lines tested. AV1 and AV2 were tested in a xenograft model of human ovarian cancer and in an immune competent mouse model of metastatic colon cancer. While highly attenuated for growth in normal mice, both AV1 and AV2 effected complete and durable cures in the majority of treated animals when delivered systemically.