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A bioluminescent imaging mouse model for Marburg virus based on a pseudovirus system
Li Zhang1, Qianqian Li1, Qiang Liu1
1a Division of HIV/AIDS and Sexually-transmitted Virus Vaccines , National Institutes for Food and Drug Control , Beijing , China.
Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
|May 9, 2017
Summary
Researchers developed a Marburg virus (MARV) pseudovirus system for safer research. This tool enables MARV vaccine and therapeutic drug evaluation outside high-containment labs.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Infectious Diseases
- Vaccinology
Background:
- Marburg virus (MARV) causes lethal hemorrhagic fever.
- MARV research is limited by the need for high-containment biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a MARV pseudovirus system for research outside BSL-4 laboratories.
- To establish in vitro and in vivo models for MARV evaluation.
Main Methods:
- Optimized HIV backbone vectors, vector ratios, and transfection reagents to generate high-titer MARV pseudovirus.
- Developed an in vitro neutralization assay and an in vivo bioluminescent imaging mouse model using the pseudovirus.
- Induced protective serum in guinea pigs and tested its efficacy in vitro and in vivo.
Main Results:
- Successfully generated high-titer MARV pseudovirus.
- Established functional in vitro neutralization and in vivo mouse models for MARV.
- Demonstrated that MARV-specific antibodies induced in guinea pigs confer protection against pseudovirus infection in mice.
Conclusions:
- The developed MARV pseudovirus system facilitates MARV research and evaluation of countermeasures in non-BSL-4 settings.
- This system offers a convenient and safer alternative for studying MARV vaccines and therapeutics.
