VISWES: A system for finding related vaccinia virus protein sequences in cancer immune therapy

The use of vaccinia virus, an oncolytic virus, in cancer immune therapy enhances the overall immune response. The mechanism of immune response against cancer and virus infection is similar. We found sequence relationships between vaccinia virus proteins and human proteins that are often regarded as hallmarks of cancer. From comparing human and vaccinia virus protein sequences, genetically engineered viruses associated with immune response have been used for cancer immune therapy in many clinical trials. Using published papers about cancer immunology, we classified proteins as either positively or negatively associated with cancer immune therapy. We searched for sequence relationships between human proteins and vaccinia virus proteins that are related to the classified proteins.