An attenuated replication-competent chikungunya virus with a fluorescently tagged envelope.
BACKGROUND:Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is the most common alphavirus infecting humans worldwide, causing acute and chronically debilitating arthralgia at a great economic expense. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:To facilitate our study of CHIKV, we generated a mCherry tagged replication-competent chime...
Published in: | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2018
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006693 https://doaj.org/article/a2c9ded61f2a4fa1a4fbaed72ca3e21e |
Summary: | BACKGROUND:Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is the most common alphavirus infecting humans worldwide, causing acute and chronically debilitating arthralgia at a great economic expense. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:To facilitate our study of CHIKV, we generated a mCherry tagged replication-competent chimeric virus, CHIKV 37997-mCherry. Single particle cryoEM demonstrated icosahedral organization of the chimeric virus and the display of mCherry proteins on virus surface. CHIKV 37997-mCherry is attenuated in both IFNαR knockout and wild-type mice. Strong anti-CHIKV and anti-mCherry antibody responses were induced in CHIKV 37997-mCherry infected mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our work suggests that chimeric alphaviruses displaying foreign antigen can serve as vaccines against both aphaviruses and other pathogens and diseases. |
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