et al.(2016)
FVS-502 is an engineered variant of the Fowlpox virus (FPV), a member of the Avipoxviridae family. FPV is an infectious virus that is capable of causing disease in chickens, often characterized by greyish-white lesions on the skin. FVS-502 was developed by Teruaki Tamura and colleagues and is specifically designed to target colorectal cancer cells. The virus is different from the unaltered FPV in that it is attenuated, meaning that it has a weakened ability to cause disease, and it expresses two tumor-specific proteins (TSPs). These are proteins that are specifically targeted to cancer cells, which enables the virus to selectively infect those cells without causing damage to surrounding normal tissue. In addition, FVS-502 highly expresses an immunomodulatory protein, ICP-47, which helps the virus to evade the immune system and possibly enhances its effectiveness against cancer cells.