Oncolytic bovine herpesvirus type 1 infects and kills breast tumor cells and breast cancer-initiating cells irrespective of tumor subtype

Oncolytic viruses are attractive cancer therapeutics because of their unique mechanisms of tumor cell targeting and the absence of toxic side effects associated with current treatments. Bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1) is a species-specific herpesvirus that fails to induce cytopathic effects in normal human cells, but is capable of infecting and killing a variety of immortalized and transformed human cell types, including human breast tumor …