Self-Replicating RNA Viruses
A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "General Virology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 927
Special Issue Editor
Interests: viral gene therapy; viral vaccines; gene expression using viral vectors; structural biology; epigenetics; nutrigenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Self-replicating RNA viruses possess a special feature of massive self-amplification of viral RNA in a broad range of mammalian and non-mammalian host cells, providing a high-level expression of heterologous genes. However, the expression is transient due to the non-integrating, rapidly degrading viral RNA genome. For this reason, self-replicating RNA viruses have been ideal for the prevention and therapy of infectious diseases and various cancers. In contrast, self-replicating RNA viruses are not suitable for the treatment of chronic diseases requiring long-term transgene expression. Among self-replicating RNA viruses, alphaviruses and flaviviruses possessing a single-stranded RNA genome of positive polarity have been frequently used. Likewise, the negative-stranded measles viruses and rhabdoviruses have also been utilized. Self-replicating RNA viruses have elicited robust target-specific immune responses and provided protection against challenges with infectious agents in preclinical animal studies. Moreover, immunization studies have demonstrated tumor-associated antigen-specific immune responses and protection against tumor challenges in animal tumor models. In a limited number of clinical trials, good safety and tolerability have been demonstrated in cancer patients although therapeutic efficacy needs to be improved through vector and dose optimization. Self-replicating RNA viruses possess wide flexibility as delivery vectors can be utilized as recombinant viral particles, RNA replicons or DNA replicons. Due to the RNA self-amplification, RNA replicons are superior to synthetic mRNA, meaning that similar immune response and protection can be achieved by using 100–1000-fold-lower RNA doses. Similarly, DNA replicons doses can be significantly reduced compared to conventional plasmid DNA. In the case of cancer therapy, oncolytic RNA viruses have demonstrated tumor-cell-specific replication leading to efficient tumor cell killing without causing harm to normal tissue. In summary, there is a huge potential of using self-replicating RNA viruses for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and various cancers.
Dr. Kenneth Lundstrom
Guest Editor
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