Newcastle disease virus chimeras expressing the Hemagglutinin- Neuraminidase protein of mesogenic strain exhibits an enhanced anti-hepatoma efficacy

•We constructed and rescued the chimeras expressing the Hemagglutinin-Neuraminidase protein of mesogenic strain.•The chimeric virus had no significant effect on the growth characteristic and virulence of parental virus.•The chimeric virus enhanced the antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an intrinsically tumor-specific virus, many researchers have reported that lentogenic NDV is a safe and effective agent for human cancer therapy. It had been demonstrated that the amino acid sequence of the fusion protein cleavage site is a major factor in the pathogenicity and anti-tumor efficacy of rNDV. However, the role of Hemagglutinin-Neuraminidase (HN) gene that contributes to virulence and anti-tumor efficacy remains undefined. To assess the role of HN gene in virus pathogenicity and anti-tumor efficacy, a reverse genetic system was developed using the lentogenic NDV Clone30 strain to provide backbone for gene exchange. Chimeric virus (rClone30-Anh(HN)) created by exchange of the HN gene of lentogenic strain Clone30 with HN gene of mesogenic strain produce no significant changes in virus pathogenicity as assessed by conducting the mean death time (MDT) and intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) assays. In vitro, infection with chimeras could induce the formation of syncytium relative significantly in HepG2 cells. Furthermore, chimeras was shown to induce the cell apoptosis via MTT and Annexin V-PI assays, reduce mitochondrial membrane potential and increase the mRNA transcription level of caspase 3. In vivo, ICR mice carrying tumor of hepatoma H22 cells were treated via intratumoral injection of chimeric virus. The treatment of chimera shows an obvious suppression in tumor volume. These results suggest that it could be an ideal approach to enhance the antitumor ability of Newcastle disease virus and highlighted the potential therapeutic application of rClone30-Anh(HN) as a viral vector to deliver foreign genes for treatment of cancers.