Newcastle Disease Virus as Cancer Treatment

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was thought to be an avian (bird) virus, causing a potentially fatal, noncancerous disease (Newcastle disease). It infects humans and causes a minor flu-like illness.

Newcastle disease (also called avian pneumoencephalitis) is characterized by inflammation of the respiratory tract and brain or the gastrointestinal tract.

Some studies reported that NDV replicates or reproduces substantially better (up to 10,000 times) using human cancer cells than normal human cells.

Two strains of NDV are:

1. Lytic: Can kill cancer cells more quickly because of their ability to damage the plasma membrane of infected cells.
2. Nonlytic: Can kill cancer cells by interfering with cell metabolism.

Both types are used to make vaccines to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) can cause a deadly infection in many kinds of birds. In humans, NDV causes mild flu-like symptoms, conjunctivitis (an infection of the eye), and/or laryngitis (irritation and swelling of the larynx and areas around it).

People who come in direct contact with infected birds may develop a very short-term eye infection, which gets cured without treatment.

Newcastle disease in birds is usually treated with antibiotics, administered for three to five days, to prevent secondary bacterial infections.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was historically considered a complementary and alternative medicinal approach. In recent years, it has been extensively studied by the conventional medical community. Development of genetically engineered NDV strains is underway, studies on these strains aim to investigate their potential anticancer or oncolytic activity.

• NDV is an enveloped virus, meaning that the progeny virus particles are released from infected cells by budding off from them.
• In this process, single copies of the NDV genome become wrapped in an outer coat, made from a small piece of the host cell’s plasma membrane.
• Two specific NDV proteins are found in the outer coat of isolated virus particles: hemagglutinin-neuraminidase and the fusion protein.
• The preferential method used by lytic strains to kill cancer cells is called oncolysis. They efficiently replicate inside a host cell.

The specific mechanism by which nonlytic NDV strains cause cancer cell death is not completely understood. Using Vero cells (derived from kidney epithelium), it was determined that NDV can cause cell death by decreasing DNA content and increasing the ratio of Bax to Bcl-2, p53 level, and caspase expression. These results in apoptosis (a series of molecular steps leading to cellular death).