afm199
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Phone number? :laughing
Coronaviruses 101: Focus on Molecular Virology
- Thread starter Dr_SLO
- Start date
Phone number? :laughing
Dr_SLO
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Coronavirus: History, Replication, and Immune Antagonism
Dr. Susan Weiss is the Co-Director of the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens. In her lecture, Coronavirus: History, Replication, and Immune Antagonism, Susan gives a detailed presentation on the history of coronaviruses, how they replicate, and their ability to evade immune responses in the body. There is a lot of detail in here that helps to understand the nature of SARS-CoV-2 and why it's been successful in causing the current pandemic.
youtu.be/XlnUt9vK3-Q
Dr. Susan Weiss is the Co-Director of the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens. In her lecture, Coronavirus: History, Replication, and Immune Antagonism, Susan gives a detailed presentation on the history of coronaviruses, how they replicate, and their ability to evade immune responses in the body. There is a lot of detail in here that helps to understand the nature of SARS-CoV-2 and why it's been successful in causing the current pandemic.
youtu.be/XlnUt9vK3-Q
Dr_SLO
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Ha! I don't think lentivirus systems are compatible with the 30kb genome of coronaviruses. Bacterial artificial chromosomes are the way to go for generating infectious clones.
DannoXYZ
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Dr_SLO
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This is a good approach to get around having to use BSL3 containment facilities. The purpose of those studies was to assess the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein to the ACE2 receptor using a pseudotyped lentivirus (HIV) system. These sorts of studies are common and very useful because the scientists don't have to use the whole SARS-CoV-2, which needs to be used in a BSL3 containment facility. Only the gene for the S protein (3,819 nucleotides; 12% of the genome) was inserted into the lentivirus vector, pNL4-3.Luc.R-E-. This vector is based on HIV but does not contain functional Nef and Vpr, and has the Env gene deleted. Because the Env protein is needed for pseudovirus entry into cells another entry protein, which in this case is the S protein, needs to be inserted into the vector. The virus particles produced by pNL4-3.Luc.R-E- are then able to enter cells but because of the defective Nef and Vpr they cannot complete a full replication cycle and are unable to be transmitted. pNL4-3.Luc.R-E- also encodes a luciferase gene from the firefly. This is used as a marker to quantify the number of cells that the pseudotyped virus entered. A luciferin substrate can be added to the cells and a luminescent signal is produced by the luciferase. This allows the scientists to determine whether the pseudotyped viruses can enter cells using the ACE2 receptor but more importantly characterize mutations in the S protein that are critical for SARS-like viruses from bats to enter cells without using the actual viruses from bats. This is a very safe approach for studying zoonotic viruses with the potential to cause severe disease.
DannoXYZ
Well-known member
Why would you even want to DO such a thing?
What could you possibly learn from taking a benign bat virus that doesn't even like humans and smear an HIV condiment on it so humans tastes better to it?
Damn mad scientists should be rounded up and shot out into space!!!
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Dr_SLO
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A lot can be learned whilst decreasing the danger.
There seems to be some level of consternation. What is the concern here?
DannoXYZ
Well-known member
I guess in my old-age, I tend to shy away from poking nature. In my younger years I'd whack bee-hive with stick in second. I actually studied microbiology at university too! My goal was to have new organisms crawl out of my test-tubes!
But now, I realize how dangerous that can be...
But now, I realize how dangerous that can be...
Dr_SLO
Well-known member
And that's exactly the point with the psuedotyped virus experiments; they can't crawl out of the tests tube. They're neutered and measure a specific function only. The experiments are designed to be safe but provide important, directly relevant information in understanding a very dangerous, highly infectious pathogen.