Oncolytic virus therapy

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As used herein the term "human cells" means cells isolated from a human, or cultured cells that have been derived from cells isolated from a human and/or whose nucleic acid component has been altered by, for example, immortalization, irradiation or recombinant means.
"Human leukocytes" and "human platelets" are human cells that are leukocytes and platelets, respectively.
Except where otherwise specified or required by the context the terms "cells" or "human cells" refer to leukocytes and/or platelets.
As used herein the term "plaque-forming unit" (pfu) means one infectious virus particle.
As used herein the term "multiplicity of infection" (MOI) means the number of infectious virus particles added per cell.
As used herein the term "clonal virus" means a virus derived from a single infectious virus particle and for which individual molecular clones have significant nucleic acid sequence homology.
For example, the sequence homology is such that at least eight individual molecular clones from the population of virions have a sequence homology greater than 95% over 300 contiguous nucleotides.
As used herein the term "leukocyte virus complex" (LVC) means the complex formed when an oncolytic virus is mixed with a leukocyte cell population and the virus has become associated with the cells.
The term includes both cells where the virus is bound to the outside of the cell and cells which are infected by the virus.
As used herein a virus is said to "bind(s) specifically" to a given cell if such virus binds to such cell with a greater specificity than such virus binds to erythrocytes.
The terms bind(s) specifically and specifically bind(s) are used interchangeably.
As used herein "NDV" is an abbreviation for Newcastle Disease Virus.
As used herein the term "replication-competent" virus refers to a virus that produces infectious progeny in cancer cells.
As used herein the transitional term "comprising" is open-ended.
A claim utilizing this term can contain elements in addition to those recited in such claim