An Ebola Virus-Like Particle-Based Reporter System Enables Evaluation of Antiviral Drugs In Vivo under Non-Biosafety Level 4 Conditions.

ABSTRACT:

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Ebola virus (EBOV) is a highly contagious lethal pathogen. As a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) agent, however, EBOV is restricted to costly BSL-4 laboratories for experimentation, thus significantly impeding the evaluation of EBOV vaccines and drugs. Here, we report an EBOV-like particle (EBOVLP)-based luciferase reporter system that enables the evaluation of anti-EBOV agents in vitro and in vivo outside BSL-4 facilities. Cotransfection of HEK293T cells with four plasmids encoding the proteins VP40, NP, and GP of EBOV and firefly luciferase (Fluc) resulted in the production of Fluc-containing filamentous particles that morphologically resemble authentic EBOV. The reporter EBOVLP was capable of delivering Fluc into various cultured cells in a GP-dependent manner and was recogn

SUBMITTER: Li D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5021419 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature