Division of Virology, National Institute for Biological Standards and Control-MHRA, Blanche Lane, South Mimms EN6 3QG, UK.
Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Viruses. 2021 Jan 31;13(2):217. doi: 10.3390/v13020217.
Serological assays detecting neutralising antibodies are important for determining the immune responses following infection or vaccination and are also often considered a correlate of protection. The target of neutralising antibodies is usually located in the Envelope protein on the viral surface, which mediates cell entry. As such, presentation of the Envelope protein on a lentiviral particle represents a convenient alternative to handling of a potentially high containment virus or for those viruses with no established cell culture system. The flexibility, relative safety and, in most cases, ease of production of lentiviral pseudotypes, have led to their use in serological assays for many applications such as the evaluation of candidate vaccines, screening and characterization of anti-viral therapeutics, and sero-surveillance. Above all, the speed of production of the lentiviral pseudotypes, once the envelope sequence is published, makes them important tools in the response to viral outbreaks, as shown during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this review, we provide an overview of the landscape of the serological applications of pseudotyped lentiviral vectors, with a brief discussion on their production and batch quality analysis. Finally, we evaluate their role as surrogates for the real virus and possible alternatives.
血清学检测方法可以检测中和抗体，对于确定感染或接种疫苗后的免疫反应非常重要，并且通常也被认为是保护的相关指标。中和抗体的靶标通常位于病毒表面的包膜蛋白上，该蛋白介导细胞进入。因此，将包膜蛋白呈现在慢病毒颗粒上代表了一种替代处理潜在高封存量病毒的方法，或者对于那些没有建立细胞培养系统的病毒来说是一种替代方法。慢病毒假型的灵活性、相对安全性以及在大多数情况下易于生产，使得它们在许多应用中被用于血清学检测，例如候选疫苗的评估、抗病毒治疗药物的筛选和表征，以及血清监测。最重要的是，一旦包膜序列公布，慢病毒假型的生产速度很快，这使得它们成为应对病毒爆发的重要工具，这在 2020 年的 COVID-19 大流行中得到了体现。在这篇综述中，我们概述了假型慢病毒载体在血清学中的应用，并简要讨论了它们的生产和批次质量分析。最后，我们评估了它们作为真实病毒替代物的作用和可能的替代物。
