Developments in Negative-Strand RNA Virus Reverse Genetics

Negative strand RNA viruses have caused fatal disease outbreaks in both human and animal health leading to losses in economic and food security sectors. Examples of these viral diseases include Ebola disease, Marburg, Rabies, Peste des Petits ruminants  and Influenza. Reverse genetic systems have been used to study these viruses in terms of their pathogenesis, protein functions, gene expression regulations and even in development of vaccines. This technique involves generation of complimentary DNA (cDNA) from reverse transcription of the RNA genome. This is followed by plasmid construction and transfection into the cell with the full length of the viral genome. In the cell, the virus replicates and finally the virus can be harvested in the process known as virus rescue. These reverse genetics have been employed in the study of different single negative strand RNA viruses. For instance, this was used in the development of influenza synthetic vaccine through a plasmid free rescue system. This has been used also to study Marburg and Ebola viruses. In animal viruses, recently there was a successful construction of a recombinant viruses for Peste des Petits ruminants virus which was a potential candidate for development of inactivated vaccines. Reverse genetics of these RNA viruses continues to evolve as researchers dive deep to understand and develop preventive measures to these viral diseases.

(BEC)