Lassa Virus

Based on the concept of high-quality and time-saving services providing, Creative Biolabs has won good reputations in the field of gene therapy. Using our well-established gene therapy platform, we provide numbers of virus types and customized services for the lentivirus vector pseudotyping.

Introduction of Lassa Virus

Lassa virus, also known as Lassa mammarenavirus (LASV), is a type of RNA arenavirus that was firstly isolated in 1970, which belongs to Mammarenavirus genus Arenaviridae family. The genome of LASV is composed of a bi-segmented single-stranded RNA, each of which encodes two proteins. The enveloped glycoproteins, glycoprotein 1 and glycoprotein 2, are encoded by the small RNA fragments, by which the virus enters into the host cells via binding to the α-dystroglycan receptor.

LASV is an Old World Arenaviruses that mainly distributes in Western Africa, where it causes infections (Lassa hemorrhagic fever) in rodents and humans at morbidity and mortality. Lassa hemorrhagic fever actually is a kind of viral hemorrhagic fever with different severity, which mainly depends on the infected sites or tissues from the mucosa, lungs even to the vascular system. After gaining entry into the host, LASV tends to infect immune cells, including dendritic cells and macrophages.

Illustrated structure of Lassa fever virus.Figure 1. Illustrated structure of Lassa fever virus. (Ohanu, 2019)

Pseudotyping of Lentiviral Vector by Lassa Virus

Considering the specificity and safety of surface proteins in lentiviral vector, scientists have explored an optimization method for lentiviral vector construction by pseudotyping a heterologous viral glycoprotein to replace the original surface protein. Meanwhile, pseudotyping modification also is a good choice to alter the tropism of lentiviral vectors. The high-affinity binding to the α-dystroglycan receptor of LASV is similar to that of Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, another arenavirus in the same genus, which means that LASV virus also can be applied for lentivirus vector pseudotype. And it has several characteristics which make it suitable for the pseudotyping.

Firstly, LASV is a biosafety level 4 RNA arenavirus, whose coated glycoproteins are benefited to safety-enhancement and toxicity-reduction. Secondly, the different components of the enveloped glycoproteins of LASV may result in the different tropism of LASV pseudotype lentivirus vectors, such as targeting lung cells, myocytes, and Schwann cells. Notably, it has been inferred that the high affinity and infectivity might be related to the pathogenesis of Lassa fever. Compared with those viruses that have been well studied for lentivirus vector pseudotyping, such as vesicular stomatitis virus and Lyssavirus, the potential of application of LASV for the optimization tropism of the lentivirus vectors still needs to be further explored and investigated.

Services

In terms of glycoprotein optimization of lentiviral vector, Creative Biolabs is a world-leading service provider of lentiviral vector pseudotyping services. More importantly, our professional technical staff has extensive experience in offering various lentiviral vector optimization services, which mainly include but not limited to:

If you are interested in the optimization of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy, you can directly contact us for more detailed information.

Reference

  1. Ohanu, M.E.; Nwafia, I.N. (2019). Lassa fever: Time to eradicate the deadly disease in Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Clinical Practice. 22(1): 144-145.
For research use only. Not intended for any clinical use.