Progress in application of Newcastle disease virus for anti-tumor therapy

Oncolytic virus therapy is becoming a new direction for cancer treatment, which could take the advantage of the characteristic of oncolytic virus selectively replicating in cancer cells, and killing tumor cells without damaging normal cells. Compared with conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy, it has higher specificity, fewer side effects and the ability resisting various kinds of malignant tumors. Newcastle disease virus, a typical oncolytic virus, can cause Newcastle disease in poultry. However, no serious symptoms occurred after human being infected with NDV. With the development of reverse genetics technology, it is possible to enhance the anti-tumor activity of NDV by promoting membrane fusion and apoptosis with gene recombination. The review is about the recent research progress in vitro and in vivo oncolytic experiments and clinical application of NDV at home and abroad, which aimed at providing scientific reference for the anti-tumor study of NDV in the future. Key words: Newcastle disease virus; Oncolytic virus; Apoptosis; Gene recombination