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  • Letter to the Editor
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Activated Ras signaling significantly enhances reovirus replication and spread

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 17, pages 69–70 (2010)Cite this article

We are responding to the recent letter to the editor by Song et al.1 titled ‘Reovirus infection of cancer cells is not due to activated Ras pathway.’ Specifically, the following three points need to be addressed.

Activated Ras signaling corresponds with increased permissiveness to reovirus infection. Ras levels do not necessarily have a role in host cell permissiveness to reovirus infection. Our contention that increased activation of Ras-signaling pathways promotes reovirus infection is based on the observation that ectopic expression of elements upstream of Ras (such as EGFR, v-erbB, activated SOS), including activated Ras, all enhance host cell permissiveness to reovirus.2, 3 Presumably, activation of specific pathways downstream of Ras, or even other oncogenes, could enhance these virus replication steps in the absence of increased Ras activity so long as they affected the ‘key host factors’ that is yet to be determined.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,

    M Shmulevitz, P Marcato & P W K Lee

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  1. M Shmulevitz
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  2. P Marcato
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  3. P W K Lee
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Correspondence to P W K Lee.

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Shmulevitz, M., Marcato, P. & Lee, P. Activated Ras signaling significantly enhances reovirus replication and spread. Cancer Gene Ther 17, 69–70 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/cgt.2009.46

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