Application of Orthoflavivirus Pseudovirus Technology in Antiviral Research

Arthropod-borne orthoflaviviruses, including dengue, Zika, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever and West Nile viruses, pose a significant global public health threat, causing hundreds of millions of infections annually with severe clinical symptoms. However, the lack of effective vaccines and antiviral drugs, coupled with the biosafety risks associated with handling live highly pathogenic strains, hinders progress in antiviral research. Pseudovirus technology, which uses single-round infectious viral particles lacking replication competence, has thus gained prominence as a safe and versatile tool for antiviral research. This review systematically summarizes the construction, optimization, and applications of orthoflavivirus pseudoviruses in antiviral research. The primary construction strategies of orthoflavivirus pseudoviruses rely on multi-plasmid co-transfection of viral replicons and structural protein expression vectors, leveraging the host cell secretory pathway to mimic natural viral assembly and maturation. The core applications of pseudovirus technology are highlighted, including high-throughput screening and detection of neutralizing antibodies, identification of antiviral drugs targeting viral entry or replication, and evaluation of vaccine immunogenicity. Despite these strengths, the approach still faces limitations, such as incomplete simulation of native viral structures and batch-to-batch titer variability, which may affect the physiological relevance of findings. In summary, orthoflavivirus pseudovirus technology has become an essential platform in both basic virology research and translational medicine, providing critical insights and tools in the ongoing fight against arthropod-borne orthoflaviviruses diseases.