Acta Naturae

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Traditional cancer treatments include surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, as well as combinations of these treatments. Despite significant advances in these fields, the search for innovative ways to treat malignant tumors, including the application of oncolytic viruses, remains relevant. One such virus is the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which possess a number of useful oncolytic properties. However, VSV-based drugs are still in their infancy and are yet to be approved for clinical use. This review discusses the mechanisms of oncogenesis, the antiviral response of tumor and normal cells, and markers of tumor cell resistance to VSV virotherapy. In addition, it examines methods for producing and arming recombinant VSV and provides examples of clinical trials. The data presented will allow better assessment of the prospects of using VSV as an oncolytic.

The gradual increase in the age of the world's population implies an increase in the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases. Such diseases are characterized by progressive loss of cognitive and motor functions of a person. A striking example of a neurodegenerative process is Parkinson's disease, in which there is a gradual death of specialized neuronal tissue. Pathomorphologically, chronic ischemic brain damage is accompanied by an extensive process of complex degeneration and in 20-30% of cases its clinical manifestation is the Parkinsonian syndrome. With the similarity of these two pathologies - Parkinson's disease and vascular parkinsonism - etiopathogenesis of the diseases is fundamentally different, but the set of differential-diagnostic signs is limited only by some features of neurological status. At present, there is no diagnostic marker both for individual neurodegenerative pathologies and for the phenomenon of neurodegeneration in general. A promising method of searching for a unique “fingerprint” of the disease may be the determination of metabolomic profile. Finding biomarkers of various neurodegenerative diseases will help to reduce the time of diagnosis, predict the course of the disease, and personalize therapeutic tactics. This review summarizes and compares the current understanding of metabolomic studies of Parkinson's disease and vascular parkinsonism syndrome, as well as the corresponding animal models.