Modified Newcastle Disease virus as an improved vaccine vector against Simian Immunodeficiency virus

Negative-Strand RNA Virus-Vectored Vaccines

Vectored RNA vaccines offer a variety of possibilities to engineer targeted vaccines. They are cost-effective and safe, but replication competent, activating the humoral as well as the cellular immune system.This chapter focuses on RNA vaccines derived from negative-strand RNA viruses from the order Mononegavirales with special attention to Newcastle disease virus-based vaccines and their generation. It shall provide an overview on the advantages and disadvantages of certain vector platforms as well as their scopes of application, including an additional section on experimental COVID-19 vaccines.

Encoding of a transgene in-frame with a Newcastle disease virus protein increases transgene expression and stability

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has been extensively explored as a vector for vaccine and oncolytic therapeutic development. In conventional NDV-based vectors, the transgene is arranged as a separate transcription unit in the NDV genome. Here, we expressed haemagglutinin protein (HA) of an avian influenza virus using an NDV vector design in which the transgene ORF is encoded in-frame with the ORF of an NDV gene. This arrangement does not increase the number of transcription units in the NDV genome, and imposes a selection pressure against mutations interrupting the transgene ORF. We placed the HA ORF upstream or downstream of N, M, F and HN ORFs of NDV so that both proteins are encoded in-frame and are separated by either a self-cleaving 2A peptide, furin cleavage site or both. Only constructs in which HA was placed downstream of the NDV HN were viable. These constructs expressed the transgene at a higher level compared to the vector encoding the same transgene in the same position in the NDV genome but as a separate transcription unit. Furthermore, the transgene expressed in one ORF with the NDV protein proved to be more stable over multiple passages. Thus, this design may be useful for applications where the stability of the transgene expression is highly important for a recombinant NDV vector.

Viruses as tools in gene therapy, vaccine development, and cancer treatment

Using viruses to our advantage has been a huge leap for humanity. Their ability to mediate horizontal gene transfer has made them useful tools for gene therapy, vaccine development, and cancer treatment. Adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, retroviruses, lentiviruses, alphaviruses, and herpesviruses are a few of the most common candidates for use as therapeutic agents or efficient gene delivery systems. Efforts are being made to improve and perfect viral-vector-based therapies to overcome potential or reported drawbacks. Some preclinical trials of viral vector vaccines have yielded positive results, indicating their potential as prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine candidates. Utilization of the oncolytic activity of viruses is the future of cancer therapy, as patients will then be free from the harmful effects of chemo- or radiotherapy. This review discusses in vitro and in vivo studies showing the brilliant therapeutic potential of viruses.

Development and Scalable Production of Newcastle Disease Virus-Vectored Vaccines for Human and Veterinary Use

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for efficient vaccine platforms that can rapidly be developed and manufactured on a large scale to immunize the population against emerging viruses. Viral-vectored vaccines are prominent vaccine platforms that have been approved for use against the Ebola virus and SARS-CoV-2. The Newcastle Disease Virus is a promising viral vector, as an avian paramyxovirus that infects poultry but is safe for use in humans and other animals. NDV has been extensively studied not only as an oncolytic virus but also a vector for human and veterinary vaccines, with currently ongoing clinical trials for use against SARS-CoV-2. However, there is a gap in NDV research when it comes to process development and scalable manufacturing, which are critical for future approved vaccines. In this review, we summarize the advantages of NDV as a viral vector, describe the steps and limitations to generating recombinant NDV constructs, review the advances in human and veterinary vaccine candidates in pre-clinical and clinical tests, and elaborate on production in embryonated chicken eggs and cell culture. Mainly, we discuss the existing data on NDV propagation from a process development perspective and provide prospects for the next steps necessary to potentially achieve large-scale NDV-vectored vaccine manufacturing.

Avian Orthoavulavirus Type-1 as Vaccine Vector against Respiratory Viral Pathogens in Animal and Human

Avian orthoavulaviruses type-1 (AOaV-1) have recently transitioned from animal vaccine vector to a bona fide vaccine delivery vehicle in human. Owing to induction of robust innate and adaptive immune responses in mucus membranes in both birds and mammals, AOaVs offer an attractive vaccine against respiratory pathogens. The unique features of AOaVs include over 50 years of safety profile, stable expression of foreign genes, high infectivity rates in avian and mammalian hosts, broad host spectrum, limited possibility of recombination and lack of pre-existing immunity in humans. Additionally, AOaVs vectors allow the production of economical and high quantities of vaccine antigen in chicken embryonated eggs and several GMP-grade mammalian cell lines. In this review, we describe the biology of AOaVs and define protocols to manipulate AOaVs genomes in effectively designing vaccine vectors. We highlighted the potential and established portfolio of AOaV-based vaccines for multiple respiratory and non-respiratory viruses of veterinary and medical importance. We comment on the limitations of AOaV-based vaccines and propose mitigations strategies. The exploitation of AOaVs vectors is expanding at an exciting pace; thus, we have limited the scope to their use as vaccines against viral pathogens in both animals and humans.

The phosphatase and tensin homolog gene inserted between NP and P gene of recombinant New castle disease virus oncolytic effect test to glioblastoma cell and xenograft mouse model

Background

Glioblastoma is one of the most serious brain cancer. Previous studies have demonstrated that PTEN function disorder affects the causing and exacerbation of glioblastoma. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) has been studied as a cancer virotherapeutics. In this study, PTEN gene was delivered to glioblastoma by recombinant NDV (rNDV) and translated into protein at the cytoplasm of the glioblastoma.

Methods

We did comparison tests PTEN protein expression efficiency and oncolytic effect depend on the PTEN gene insertion site at the between NP and P genes and the between P and M gene. PTEN protein mRNA transcription, translation in glioblastoma cell, and functional PTEN protein effect of the rNDV in vitro and in vivo test performed using western blotting, RT-qPCR, MTT assay, and Glioblastoma xenograft animal model test.

Results

The result of this study demonstrates that rNDV-PTEN kills glioblastoma cells and reduces cancer tissue better than rNDV without the PTEN gene. In molecular immunological and cytological assays, PTEN expression level was high at located in the between NP and P gene, and PTEN gene was successfully delivered to the glioblastoma cell using rNDV and PTEN gene translated to functional protein and inhibits hTERT and AKT gene.

Conclusions

PTEN gene enhances the oncolytic effect of the rNDV. And our study demonstrated that NP and P gene site is better than P and M gene site which is commonly and conventionally used. PTEN gene containing rNDV is a good candidate virotherapeutics for glioblastoma.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12985-022-01746-w.

Transboundary Animal Diseases, an Overview of 17 Diseases with Potential for Global Spread and Serious Consequences

Animals provide food and other critical resources to most of the global population. As such, diseases of animals can cause dire consequences, especially disease with high rates of morbidity or mortality. Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) are highly contagious or transmissible, epidemic diseases, with the potential to spread rapidly across the globe and the potential to cause substantial socioeconomic and public health consequences. Transboundary animal diseases can threaten the global food supply, reduce the availability of non-food animal products, or cause the loss of human productivity or life. Further, TADs result in socioeconomic consequences from costs of control or preventative measures, and from trade restrictions. A greater understanding of the transmission, spread, and pathogenesis of these diseases is required. Further work is also needed to improve the efficacy and cost of both diagnostics and vaccines. This review aims to give a broad overview of 17 TADs, providing researchers and veterinarians with a current, succinct resource of salient details regarding these significant diseases. For each disease, we provide a synopsis of the disease and its status, species and geographic areas affected, a summary of in vitro or in vivo research models, and when available, information regarding prevention or treatment.

Newcastle Disease Virus as a Vaccine Vector for 20 Years: A Focus on Maternally Derived Antibody Interference

It has been 20 years since Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was first used as a vector. The past two decades have witnessed remarkable progress in vaccine generation based on the NDV vector and optimization of the vector. Protective antigens of a variety of pathogens have been expressed in the NDV vector to generate novel vaccines for animals and humans, highlighting a great potential of NDV as a vaccine vector. More importantly, the research work also unveils a major problem restraining the NDV vector vaccines in poultry, i.e., the interference from maternally derived antibody (MDA). Although many efforts have been taken to overcome MDA interference, a lack of understanding of the mechanism of vaccination inhibition by MDA in poultry still hinders vaccine improvement. In this review, we outline the history of NDV as a vaccine vector by highlighting some milestones. The recent advances in the development of NDV-vectored vaccines or therapeutics for animals and humans are discussed. Particularly, we focus on the mechanisms and hypotheses of vaccination inhibition by MDA and the efforts to circumvent MDA interference with the NDV vector vaccines. Perspectives to fill the gap of understanding concerning the mechanism of MDA interference in poultry and to improve the NDV vector vaccines are also proposed.