Haematological Profile of Rat Fibrosarcoma Models After Virulent Newcastle Disease Virus Virotherapy: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Virotherapy is the use of viruses as cancer therapy. One of the viruses that are declared to have oncolytic activity is Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV). In the development of virotherapy, there are fundamental things that need to be considered, one of which is the side effects caused. The haematological profile is one of the important indicators in assessing general health status. This pilot study aims to describe haematological profile of fibrosarcoma rat models after virotherapy with virulent NDV. This study used one-group pretest-posttest design, consisting of six white rats which were all induced fibrosarcoma with benzo(α)pyrene. After the tumour appeared, the rats were given a single treatment, i.e., virotherapy using NDV Tabanan-1/ARP/2017 isolate at a dose of 0.5 mL of 9 log 2 HA Unit. Blood sampling was performed on the orbital sinus, carried out at the following time points: before rat adaptation, after the fibrosarcoma induction, and after the therapy with NDV. The results of this study indicate that NDV Tabanan-1/ARP/2017 do not cause pathological changes on the rat haematological profile, and many values are better than cancer patients in general. Anemia and leukocytopenia that occur in general cancer patients, did not occur in rats in this study. The levels of RBC, Hb, PCV, WBC at the end of the study were as follows: 7.73±0.14 x10⁶ µL; 12.8±0.42 g/dL; 39.5±3.53%; 10.7±5.09 x10³ µL. Meanwhile, the differential leukocytes result for neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes were as follows: 46.5±20.50%; 0.5±0.70%; 0; 5±0%; 48±19.79.%. From these results, it can be concluded that the NDV is a promising and has good potential as a virotherapy agent.