scholarly journals Neutralization Assay Using a Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Vector Expressing the Green Fluorescent Protein Is a High-Throughput Method To Monitor the Humoral Immune Response against Vaccinia Virus

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 406-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Cosma ◽  
Silja Bühler ◽  
Rashmi Nagaraj ◽  
Caroline Staib ◽  
Anna-Lena Hammarin ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Vaccination against smallpox is again considered in order to face a possible bioterrorist threat, but the nature and the level of the immune response needed to protect a person from smallpox after vaccination are not totally understood. Therefore, simple, rapid, and accurate assays to evaluate the immune response to vaccinia virus need to be developed. Neutralization assays are usually considered good predictors of vaccine efficacy and more informative with regard to protection than binding assays. Currently, the presence of neutralizing antibodies to vaccinia virus is measured using a plaque reduction neutralization test, but this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive and has a subjective readout. Here, we describe an innovative neutralization assay based on a modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vector expressing the green fluorescent protein (MVA-gfp). This MVA-gfp neutralization assay is rapid and sensitive and has a high-throughput potential. Thus, it is suitable to monitor the immune response and eventually the efficacy of a large campaign of vaccination against smallpox and to study the vector-specific immune response in clinical trials that use genetically engineered vaccinia viruses. Most importantly, application of the highly attenuated MVA eliminates the safety concern in using the replication-competent vaccinia virus in the standard clinical laboratory.

2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (19) ◽  
pp. 10684-10688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia L. Earl ◽  
Jeffrey L. Americo ◽  
Bernard Moss

ABSTRACT A rapid and sensitive neutralization assay is required to evaluate alternative smallpox vaccines. Here we describe the development and use of a 96-well plate, semi-automated, flow cytometric assay that uses a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein and which would be applicable to other viruses.


Biologicals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 56-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuyun Qin ◽  
Dmitriy Volokhov ◽  
Elvira Rodionova ◽  
Christoph Wirblich ◽  
Matthias J. Schnell ◽  
...  

Viruses ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yíngyún Caì ◽  
Masaharu Iwasaki ◽  
Brett Beitzel ◽  
Shuīqìng Yú ◽  
Elena Postnikova ◽  
...  

Lassa virus (LASV), a mammarenavirus, infects an estimated 100,000–300,000 individuals yearly in western Africa and frequently causes lethal disease. Currently, no LASV-specific antivirals or vaccines are commercially available for prevention or treatment of Lassa fever, the disease caused by LASV. The development of medical countermeasure screening platforms is a crucial step to yield licensable products. Using reverse genetics, we generated a recombinant wild-type LASV (rLASV-WT) and a modified version thereof encoding a cleavable green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter for rapid and quantitative detection of infection (rLASV-GFP). Both rLASV-WT and wild-type LASV exhibited similar growth kinetics in cultured cells, whereas growth of rLASV-GFP was slightly impaired. GFP reporter expression by rLASV-GFP remained stable over several serial passages in Vero cells. Using two well-characterized broad-spectrum antivirals known to inhibit LASV infection, favipiravir and ribavirin, we demonstrate that rLASV-GFP is a suitable screening tool for the identification of LASV infection inhibitors. Building on these findings, we established a rLASV-GFP-based high-throughput drug discovery screen and an rLASV-GFP-based antibody neutralization assay. Both platforms, now available as a standard tool at the IRF-Frederick (an international resource), will accelerate anti-LASV medical countermeasure discovery and reduce costs of antiviral screens in maximum containment laboratories.


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