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Hsu CJ, Chen CH, Chen WT, Liu PC, Chang TY, Lin MH, Chen CC, Chen HY, Huang CH, Cheng YH, Sun JR. Development of an EBOV MiniG plus system as an advanced tool for anti-Ebola virus drug screening. Heliyon 2023; 9:e22138. [PMID: 38045158 PMCID: PMC10692823 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Revised: 10/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The incidence of zoonotic diseases, such as coronavirus disease 2019 and Ebola virus disease, is increasing worldwide. However, drug and vaccine development for zoonotic diseases has been hampered because the experiments involving live viruses are limited to high-containment laboratories. The Ebola virus minigenome system enables researchers to study the Ebola virus under BSL-2 conditions. Here, we found that the addition of the nucleocapsid protein of human coronaviruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, can increase the ratio of green fluorescent protein-positive cells by 1.5-2 folds in the Ebola virus minigenome system. Further analysis showed that the nucleocapsid protein acts as an activator of the Ebola virus minigenome system. Here, we developed an EBOV MiniG Plus system based on the Ebola virus minigenome system by adding the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. By evaluating the antiviral effect of remdesivir and rupintrivir, we demonstrated that compared to that of the traditional Ebola virus minigenome system, significant concentration-dependent activity was observed in the EBOV MiniG Plus system. Taken together, these results demonstrate the utility of adding nucleocapsid protein to the Ebola virus minigenome system to create a powerful platform for screening antiviral drugs against the Ebola virus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chi-Ju Hsu
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Cheng-Hsiu Chen
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Wen-Ting Chen
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ping-Cheng Liu
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
| | - Tein-Yao Chang
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Pathology and Graduate Institute of Pathology and Parasitology, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan
| | - Meng-He Lin
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Cheng-Cheung Chen
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Hsing-Yu Chen
- Department of Medical Techniques, Taipei City Hospital Ren-Ai Branch, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Heng Huang
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Hsiang Cheng
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Graduate Institute of Physiology, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan
| | - Jun-Ren Sun
- Institute of Preventive Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Medical Science, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Graduate Institute of Physiology, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan
- Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan
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Elahi SM, Nazemi-Moghaddam N, Gadoury C, Lippens J, Radinovic S, Venne MH, Marcil A, Gilbert R. A rapid Focus-Forming Assay for quantification of infectious adenoviral vectors. J Virol Methods 2021; 297:114267. [PMID: 34437873 DOI: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Revised: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 08/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Currently available methods to titrate adenoviral vectors (AdV) in the absence of a gene reporter such as GFP, are either time-consuming or not very reproducible. A Focus-Forming Assay (FFA) for quantification of infectious AdV particles followed by automated focus counting was developed using new monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the human adenovirus type 5. Briefly, in this method, 96-well plates of HEK293A cells were infected with 2-fold dilutions of AdV at seeding time. Forty eight hours post-infection, the cells were fixed with methanol. The cells were then incubated with each mAb followed by a FITC conjugated anti-mouse antibody. The plates were scanned and positive cells counted using an automated fluorescence microscopy system. The results of the FFA were compared with the plaque assay and the TCID50 assay. The titer of six different recombinant AdV were compared using the FFA along with a commercial kit. The results were similar, but in contrast to the commercial kit for which the stained cells are counted manually, the software automatically counts the positives cells in the FFA. The automatic counting of positive cells makes the FFA a more precise and reliable assay compared to the commercial kit for titration of AdV.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seyyed Mehdy Elahi
- Department of Production Platforms & Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Nazila Nazemi-Moghaddam
- Department of Production Platforms & Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Christine Gadoury
- Department of Production Platforms & Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Julie Lippens
- Department of Immunobiology, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Stevo Radinovic
- Department of Downstream Processing and Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Marie-Hélène Venne
- Department of Production Platforms & Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Anne Marcil
- Department of Immunobiology, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
| | - Rénald Gilbert
- Department of Production Platforms & Analytics, National Research Council Canada, Building Montreal, Montréal, Canada; Department of Bioengineering McGill University, Montréal, Canada.
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