Viruses are usually pathogens that can cause serious diseases such as coronaviruses that caused the current pandemic. At the same time, other viruses that are pathogenic to some animal species are not pathogenic to humans. Viruses targeting special cell surface receptors make them selective to some cell types, making them smart, targeted agents. Scientists utilized this feature on cancer cells after many observations in the last century about cancer regression after viral infections. One of these pathogenic viruses to animals but not to humans is Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV).

Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) is a contagious fatal disease to all birds worldwide, creating damaging consequences for the poultry industry. NDV has been classified into three major pathotypes depending on the disease severity in chickens: the lentogenic, mesogenic, and velogenic strains. Lentogenic strains are avirulent and may cause mild respiratory infections. Mesogenic strains are of intermediate virulence and cause respiratory disorders with low mortality. Both strains are used in oncolytic virotherapy, immunotherapy and as recombinant vaccine vectors. Velogenic strains are highly virulent and classified into neurotropic and viscerotropic velogenic strains, yet it still shows a strong oncolytic effect on tumor models.

The Special Issue will focus on the recent development of NDV as a pathogen and novel biological agent and its interaction with the host cell and welcome all types of manuscripts.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• NDV characterization
• Molecular virology of NDV
• NDV replication in non-avian cells
• Virus-host interaction, cytopathic effect and diagnosis
• Recombinant vaccine development
• Immune response to NDV infection
• Therapeutic use of NDV