Development of A MERS-CoV Replicon Cell Line for Antiviral Screening

  • Virol Sin. 2021 Aug;36(4):730-735. doi: 10.1007/s12250-020-00341-z.
Jing Chen  1  2 ,  Bing-Jie Hu  1  2 ,  Kai Zhao  1  2 ,  Yun Luo  1  2 ,  Hao-Feng Lin  1  2 ,  Zheng-Li Shi  3
Affiliations
  • 1. CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China.
  • 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
  • 3. CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China. [email protected].
PMID: 33616893 DOI: 10.1007/s12250-020-00341-z
Abstract

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is the causative agent of a severe respiratory disease with a high mortality of ~ 35%. The lack of approved treatments for MERS-CoV Infection underscores the need for a user-friendly system for rapid drug screening. In this study, we constructed a MERS-CoV replicon containing the Renilla luciferase (Rluc) reporter gene and a stable luciferase replicon-carrying cell line. Using this cell line, we showed that MERS-CoV replication was inhibited by combined application of lopinavir and ritonavir, indicating that this cell line can be used to screen inhibitors of MERS-CoV replication. Importantly, the MERS-replicon cell line can be used for high-throughput screening of Antiviral drugs without the need for live virus handling, providing an effective and safe tool for the discovery of Antiviral drugs against MERS-CoV.

Keywords
Antiviral screening; Luciferase reporter gene; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV); Replicon cell line.
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