cancers Review Oncolytic Virus-Induced Autophagy in Glioblastoma Margarita Kamynina 1, Salome Tskhovrebova 1, Jawad Fares 2 , Peter Timashev 3,4,5 , Anastasia Laevskaya 1 and Ilya Ulasov 1,* 1 Group of Experimental Biotherapy and Diagnostic, Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
[email protected] (M.K.);
[email protected] (S.T.);
[email protected] (A.L.) 2 Department of Neurological Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA;
[email protected] 3 Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;
[email protected] 4 Department of Polymers and Composites, N. N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, 119991 Moscow, Russia 5 Chemistry Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia * Correspondence:
[email protected] Simple Summary: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor with an incidence rate of nearly 3.19/100,000. Current therapeutic options fall short in improving the survival of patients with GBM. Various genetic and microenvironmental factors contribute to GBM progression and resistance to therapy. The development of gene therapies using self-replicating oncolytic viruses can advance GBM treatment. Due to GBM heterogeneity, oncolytic viruses have been genetically modified to improve the antiglioma effect in vitro and in vivo. Oncolytic viruses can activate autophagy signaling in GBM upon tumoral infection. Autophagy can be cytoprotective, Citation: Kamynina, M.; whereby the GBM cells catabolize damaged organelles to accommodate to virus-induced stress, or Tskhovrebova, S.; Fares, J.; Timashev, cytotoxic, whereby it leads to the destruction of GBM cells.