RNA Virus Reverse Genetics and Vaccine Design

Abstract

RNA viruses are capable of rapid spread and severe or potentially lethal disease in both animals and humans. The development of reverse genetics systems for manipulation and study of RNA virus genomes has provided platforms for designing and optimizing viral mutants for vaccine development. Here, we review the impact of RNA virus reverse genetics systems on past and current efforts to design effective and safe viral therapeutics and vaccines.

Construction and characterization of an infectious cDNA clone of rat hepatitis E virus

“…Reverse genetics systems, which enable the generation of infectious virus from cloned cDNA, have been widely used for site-directed mutagenesis of viral RNA genomes following various applications in basic and applied virology (Hoenen et al, 2011;Stobart & Moore, 2014;Ye et al, 2014). A reverse genetics system for human HEV was first developed by Panda et al (2000).…”

White spots in pharmaceutical pipelines–EMA identifies potential areas of unmet medical needs

“…Genetic and molecular evolution studies of such pathogens provide the basis for reverse genetics platforms [26], recombinant approaches as well as identification of the new genomic targets and biomarkers allowing efficient design of vaccine and therapeutics as well as predicting effects in patients. Furthermore, human genomics and related studies are providing insight into aspects of human biology and immunology that are important in the clinical manifestations of infectious diseases [27].…”

Rapid one-step construction of a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) infectious clone system by homologous recombination

“…The timing and technical expertise required to perform these steps depends on the type of viral genome being constructed. Infectious clone systems for viruses with small unfragmented positive sense RNA genomes are less demanding to construct than those with large negative sense, positive sense or fragmented genomes (Ebihara et al, 2005;Yount et al, 2000;Stobart and Moore, 2014).…”

“…Construction of infectious clone systems for viruses of the Coronaviridae has lagged in comparison to those of other viral families because qualities of the coronavirus genome restrict the use of traditional molecular cloning techniques (Stobart and Moore, 2014). The prototypical coronavirus possesses a positive sense RNA genome from 27 to 32 kb in length.…”