Provided are compounds of Formula III that enhance the efficacy of viruses by increasing spread of the virus in cells, increasing the titer of virus in cells, or increasing the antigen expression from a virus, gene or trans-gene expression from a virus, or virus protein expression in cells. Other uses, compositions and methods of using same are also provided. ##STR00001##

The present disclosure relates to liquid and dried compositions comprising a live, attenuated or genetically modified herpesvirus and methods of preparing such compositions, in one aspect, the composition comprises at least two or more pharmaceutically acceptable excepients, at least one of which is histidine and at least one of which is a sugar or sugar alcohol. The compostions retain a sufficiently high infectious titre following storage or large-scale manufacturing steps, such as lyophilization.

The present invention relates to a cell line having an increased ability to produce virus and a method for preparing thereof, and more particularly, to a cell line that has an increased ability to produce virus, due to the loss of the function of the Bst-2 (tetherin) gene, and to a production method thereof. According to the present invention, a cell line lacking the function of the Bst-2 gene has an excellent ability to produce virus, compared to a wild-type cell line. Thus, when the mutant cell line is used as a virus-producing cell line, the production yield of virus can be increased. In addition, the mutant cell line can be used for the production and research of vaccines for preventing and treating viral diseases.

The present disclosure relates to replication-competent controlled herpesviruses whose transient replication in a desired inoculation site region of a subject can be activated by the delivery of an appropriate heat dose to the inoculation site region. In related recombinant viruses, activation requires delivery of a heat dose in the presence in the inoculation site region of an effective concentration of a small-molecule regulator. The viruses are further engineered to be capable of replicating efficiently in the desired inoculation site region but essentially not in nerve ganglia and other nerve cells.

The invention provides epitopes of HSV and VZV that are cross-reactive and are useful for the prevention and treatment of alphaherpesvirus infection. T-cells having specificity for antigens of the invention have demonstrated cytotoxic activity against cells loaded with virally-encoded peptide epitopes, and in many cases, against whole virus. The identification of immunogenic antigens responsible for T-cell specificity provides improved anti-viral therapeutic and prophylactic strategies. Compositions containing epitopes or polynucleotides encoding epitopes of the invention provide effectively targeted vaccines for prevention and treatment of alphaherpesvirus infection.

The disclosure provides a non-natural herpes simplex virus (HSV), compositions comprising, or alternatively consisting essentially of, or yet further consisting of the HSV, and methods of producing the HSV, or infecting a cell with the HSV. Also provided herein are methods of treating cancer or inhibiting the growth or metastasis of cancer cell in a subject in need thereof.

The present disclosure relates to liquid and dried compositions comprising a live, attenuated or genetically modified herpesvirus and methods of preparing such compositions, in one aspect, the composition comprises at least two or more pharmaceutically acceptable exetpients, at least one of which is histidine and at least one of which is a sugar or sugar alcohol. The compostions retain a sufficiently high infectious titre following storage or large-scale manufacturing steps, such as lyophilization.

A recombinant herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), a recombinant HSV-1 vector, and a method of preparing the recombinant HSV-1, may enable easy genetic modification, as a relatively large foreign gene may be inserted or various foreign genes may be inserted simultaneously, as ICP6 and IR regions are simultaneously deleted. These may be used in cancer treatment as an oncolytic virus that is safe, while having an excellent effect in killing cancer cells.