1. Construction and Characterization of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus with a Fluorescent Reporter for Antiviral Drug Screening.
- Author
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Wang, Xiao, Xu, Mingyue, Ke, Huanhuan, Ma, Longda, Li, Liushuai, Li, Jiang, Deng, Fei, Wang, Manli, Hu, Zhihong, and Liu, Jia
- Subjects
ANTIVIRAL agents ,MEDICAL screening ,EMERGING infectious diseases ,THROMBOCYTOPENIA ,REVERSE genetics ,PATHOLOGICAL physiology ,PLANT viruses - Abstract
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) caused by a novel bunyavirus (SFTSV) is an emerging infectious disease with up to 30% case fatality. Currently, there are no specific antiviral drugs or vaccines for SFTS. Here, we constructed a reporter SFTSV in which the virulent factor nonstructural protein (NSs) was replaced by eGFP for drug screening. First, we developed a reverse genetics system based on the SFTSV HBMC5 strain. Then, the reporter virus SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP was constructed, rescued, and characterized in vitro. SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP showed similar growth kinetics with the wild-type virus in Vero cells. We further detected the antiviral efficacy of favipiravir and chloroquine against wild-type and recombinant SFTSV by the quantification of viral RNA, and compared the results with that of fluorescent assay using high-content screening. The results showed that SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP could be used as a reporter virus for antiviral drug screening in vitro. In addition, we analyzed the pathogenesis of SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP in interferon receptor-deficient (IFNAR
−/− ) C57BL/6J mice and found that unlike the fatal infection of the wild-type virus, no obvious pathological change or viral replication were observed in SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP-infected mice. Taken together, the green fluorescence and attenuated pathogenicity make SFTSV-delNSs-eGFP a potent tool for the future high-throughput screening of antiviral drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
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