Definition

An engineered oncolytic virus with potential antineoplastic and immunomodulating activities. Upon intratumoral injection of ASP-9801, the oncolytic virus selectively targets and replicates in cancer cells without being able to infect and replicate in normal, healthy cells. This induces selective oncolytic virus-mediated cytotoxicity in cancer cells, which leads to cancer cell lysis. Following the lysis of infected cells, the replicated virus is released and can infect adjacent tumor cells, which both induces further tumor cell oncolysis and may activate the immune system to exert an anti-tumor immune response against the tumor cells.