New method to generate virus-like particles, to help with developing antibodies against Nipah

Sub : Science and tech

Sec: Health

Context:

Scientists at the Institute of Advanced Virology (IAV), Thonnakkal, Thiruvananthapuram, have developed a novel way of generating non-infectious Nipah virus-like particles (VLPs) in the laboratory, which mimic the wild type Nipah virus (NiV).

More on news:

This new method offers an alternate, safe and effective platform for developing neutralizing antibodies against NiV in a biosafety level-2 (BSL) laboratory.
The IAV team has thus come one step closer to its mandate for developing monoclonal antibodies and antivirals against NiV and similar pathogens.
Virus neutralization assays are critical for the development and evaluation of vaccines and immunotherapeutics, as well as for conducting basic research into the immune response and pathogenesis of NiV.
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are molecules that closely resemble viruses, but are non-infectious because they contain no viral genetic material.

About Nipah Virus:

The zoonotic virus Nipah is a highly pathogenic paramyxovirus, with a fatality rate of up to 80% in affected humans.
Nipah virus is a highly contagious and often deadly virus that can infect both humans and animals.
It belongs to the family Paramyxoviridae, genusHenipavirus.
Nipah virus was first identified in Malaysia in 1998 when it caused an outbreak of severe respiratory and neurological illness in pigs and a subsequent outbreak in humans.
Transmission: It spreads through contact with infected animals, contaminated food, or direct human-to-human contact.
Symptoms: It causes fever, headache, and vomiting, and can lead to severe encephalitis with a high mortality rate.
Geographic Distribution: Nipah virus outbreaks have occurred in South and Southeast Asia, primarily in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, and India.
Animal Reservoir: Fruit bats, especially flying foxes, are natural carriers of the virus.

About VLPs:

VLPs carry most of the characteristics of the virus, except their ability to replicate (because it lacks the viral genome).
VLPs have long been recognised as effective quantitative platforms for studying viral binding and entry kinetics of the virus.
The advent of NanoBiT technology and “HiBiT-tagged” VLP (HiBiT is an 11 amino acid peptide ) makes it far more sophisticated.
The genome of the NiV encodes six major proteins: glycoprotein (G), fusion protein (F), matrix (M), nucleocapsid (N), long polymerase (L) and phosphoprotein (P).
IAV scientists generated “HiBiT-tagged” Nipah virus-like particles (NiV-VLPs) using plasmid-based expression systems, encoding the NiV structural proteins G, F, and M.
The VLPs thus produced were morphologically and functionally identical to the native virus.
The inclusion of a highly sensitive HiBiT tag on these VLPs accelerates their potential in antiviral drug screening and vaccine development.

Its advantages:

The concept of generating VLPs or tagged VLPs is applicable to several other virulent pathogens but it is particularly advantageous to apply this methodology to BSL-3/BSL-4 level viruses, to enable studies in lower biocontainment levels.