Special Issue "Recent Advances in Morbillivirus Vaccine Development and Oncolytic Virotherapy".

ABSTRACT

Members of the Morbillivirus genus are enveloped, negative-strand RNA viruses that include a number of highly contagious pathogens important to humans and animals. They are known to be transmitted via the respiratory route and cause febrile diseases that can be fatal. Despite the availability of attenuated vaccines against several members, these viruses remain responsible for significant morbidity and mortality in their natural hosts worldwide. The development of molecular biology techniques over the past decades has helped increase the understanding of morbillivirus pathogenesis and explore the possibility to engineer their genomes as viral vectors. This Special Issue of Viruses explores recent advances in recombinant morbilliviruses platforms, especially measles virus (MV) and canine distemper virus (CDV), for novel vaccine development and oncolytic virotherapy against cancers. Topics in this special issue include parameters involved during the viral vector production, strategies of viral vector engineering, and the underlying mechanisms of the therapeutic effects exhibited by these vectors.