DISC‐hGMCSF is a gH‐deleted HSV‐2 based vector expressing human GM‐CSF that is being developed for cancer immunotherapy. To support first clinical use, a range of preclinical safety studies were performed using DISC‐hGMCSF in addition to DISC‐murine‐GMCSF and the backbone vector, TA‐HSV.

The toxicity of the DISC vectors was assessed by repeated dose, neurovirulence and neuroinvasiveness studies in mice, and by safety studies in rabbits, guinea pigs and athymic nude mice. Studies were also conducted to determine whether the vector could establish latency in local ganglia in mice following intradermal injection, and whether it could reactivate from the latent state. The vector biodistribution following intravenous administration was also investigated in mice, using PCR to detect vector DNA.

The DISC vectors were essentially non‐toxic in all the systems studied. No adverse reactions were seen in mice receiving four intravenous doses of DISC‐mGMCSF and the results from studies of neurovirulence, neuroinvasiveness, local tolerance in rabbit, general safety in mice and guinea pigs and safety in athymic nude mice were consistent with DISC being unable to replicate and cause disease. The vector could establish latency in local ganglia in mice, but at low efficiency, and could not reactivate infectious virions. Following intravenous administration, vector DNA was widely distributed up to Day 28, but by Day 56 had disappeared from gonads and brain and was only found in blood and liver.

The panel of safety studies provided evidence that DISC‐hGMCSF will be unable to replicate and cause disease, and has low toxicity in man. These data were presented to the Medicines Control Agency and the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee as part of the regulatory submissions for a clinical trial in melanoma patients. These submissions have been approved, and DISC‐hGMCSF has now entered a phase I clinical trial in the UK by direct intratumoural injection. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.