Generation of Viral Particles with Brain Cell-Specific Tropism by Pseudotyping HIV-1 with the Zika Virus E Protein

Abstract

Flaviviruses are a family of RNA viruses that includes many known pathogens, such as Zika virus (ZIKV), West Nile virus (WNV), dengue virus (DENV), and yellow fever virus (YFV). A pseudotype is an artificial virus particle created in vitro by incorporating the flavivirus envelope proteins into the structure of, for example, a retrovirus such as human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1). They can be a useful tool in virology for understanding the biology of flaviviruses, evaluating immune responses, developing antiviral strategies but can also be used as vectors for gene transfer experiments. This protocol describes the generation of a ZIKV/HIV-1 pseudotype developed as a new tool for infecting cells derived from a highly malignant brain tumor: glioblastoma multiforme grade 4.

Transduction Efficiency of Zika Virus E Protein Pseudotyped HIV-1gfp and Its Oncolytic Activity Tested in Primary Glioblastoma Cell Cultures

“…Transfection of cells was carried out as described before [30]. Since the procedure for preparing ZIKV/HIV pseudotypes seems to be the most critical step of the study, we have specifically made an open access publication to provide easy access to our protocol explaining in great detail how we proceed in the preparation of pseudotype particles with a ZIKV-E coating [33]. It should be noted that this protocol is particularly designed to produce pseudotypes with the described plasmids.…”