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A novel SARS-CoV-2-derived infectious vector system
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  • Ghada Elfayres,
  • Yong Xiao,
  • Qinghua Pan,
  • Chen Liang,
  • Benoit Barbeau,
  • Lionel Berthoux
Ghada Elfayres
Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres
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Yong Xiao
Universite du Quebec a Montreal Departement des Sciences Biologiques
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Qinghua Pan
McGill University Department of Medicine
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Chen Liang
McGill University Department of Medicine
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Benoit Barbeau
Universite du Quebec a Montreal Departement des Sciences Biologiques
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Lionel Berthoux
Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres

Corresponding Author:lionel.berthoux@uqtr.ca

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Abstract

Short title of the paper … Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19. The development of antiviral drugs for COVID-19 has been hampered by the requirement of a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory for experiments related to SARS-CoV-2, and by the lack of easy and precise methods for quantification of infection. Here, we developed a SARS-CoV-2 viral vector composed of all four SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins constitutively expressed in lentivirally transduced cells, combined with an RNA replicon deleted for SARS-CoV-2 structural protein genes S, M and E, and expressing a luciferase-GFP fusion protein. We show that, after concentrating viral stocks by ultracentrifugation, the SARS-CoV-2 viral vector is able to infect two human cell lines expressing receptors ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Both luciferase activity and GFP fluorescence were detected, and transduction was remdesivir-sensitive. We also show that this vector is inhibited by three type I interferons (IFN-I) subtypes. Although improvements are needed to increase infectious titers, this vector system may prove useful for antiviral drug screening and SARS-CoV-2-related investigations.