Newcastle Disease Virus as a Vaccine Vector for 20 Years: A Focus on Maternally Derived Antibody Interference

It has been 20 years since Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was first used as a vector. The past two decades have witnessed remarkable progress in vaccine generation based on the NDV vector and optimization of the vector. Protective antigens of a variety of pathogens have been expressed in the NDV vector to generate novel vaccines for animals and humans, highlighting a great potential of NDV as a vaccine vector. More importantly, the research work also unveils a major problem restraining the NDV vector vaccines in poultry, i.e., the interference from maternally derived antibody (MDA). Although many efforts have been taken to overcome MDA interference, a lack of understanding of the mechanism of vaccination inhibition by MDA in poultry still hinders vaccine improvement. In this review, we outline the history of NDV as a vaccine vector by highlighting some milestones. The recent advances in the development of NDV-vectored vaccines or therapeutics for animals and humans are discussed. Particularly, we focus on the mechanisms and hypotheses of vaccination inhibition by MDA and the efforts to circumvent MDA interference with the NDV vector vaccines. Perspectives to fill the gap of understanding concerning the mechanism of MDA interference in poultry and to improve the NDV vector vaccines are also proposed.