Interesting. Back in 2007, researchers have boasted how they revive the deadly and contagious Ebola virus using DNA.
Fast forward to 2012 and guess what? There is an Ebola Virus breakout in Ughanda.
Source: BBC
"Fourteen people have now died since the outbreak began in western Uganda three weeks ago, he said in a broadcast."
Reverse Genetics Approach for Generating
Ebola Virus and Other Filoviruses from
Cloned DNA
Patent No: US 7,211,378 B2
Date: May 1st, 2007
OVERVIEW
Ebola virus, a negative strand RNA virus in the family Filoviridae, is among the most lethal
human pathogens. Efforts to develop treatments for Ebola infections have been hampered
by a lack of effective ways to experimentally mutate the virus
THE INVENTION
Kawaoka and his colleagues have now developed a reverse genetics approach for generating Ebola virus entirely from cloned cDNA. They prepared the full Ebola genome through reverse transcription of viral RNA, followed by PCR amplification and cloning of Ebola cDNA. They then successfully produced infectious viral particles by transfecting host cells with plasmids carrying Ebola cDNA, along with plasmids expressing Ebola proteins L, NP, VP30 and VP35 (needed for transcription and replication of negative strand RNA viruses), and one encoding the T7 RNA polymerase.
The researchers also used the system to make mutant virus particles containing an altered furin recognition motif. Furin cleaves Ebola virus glycoprotein at a highly conserved sequence motif, an event hypothesized to be critical to viral pathogenicity. However, viral
particles carrying the altered motif still showed pathogenicity and ability to replicate in culture. This result illustrates the system’s utility for hastening our understanding of the Ebola virus life cycle and the development of anti-viral agents.
Fast forward to 2012 and guess what? There is an Ebola Virus breakout in Ughanda.
Source: BBC
"Fourteen people have now died since the outbreak began in western Uganda three weeks ago, he said in a broadcast."
Reverse Genetics Approach for Generating
Ebola Virus and Other Filoviruses from
Cloned DNA
Patent No: US 7,211,378 B2
Date: May 1st, 2007
OVERVIEW
Ebola virus, a negative strand RNA virus in the family Filoviridae, is among the most lethal
human pathogens. Efforts to develop treatments for Ebola infections have been hampered
by a lack of effective ways to experimentally mutate the virus
THE INVENTION
Kawaoka and his colleagues have now developed a reverse genetics approach for generating Ebola virus entirely from cloned cDNA. They prepared the full Ebola genome through reverse transcription of viral RNA, followed by PCR amplification and cloning of Ebola cDNA. They then successfully produced infectious viral particles by transfecting host cells with plasmids carrying Ebola cDNA, along with plasmids expressing Ebola proteins L, NP, VP30 and VP35 (needed for transcription and replication of negative strand RNA viruses), and one encoding the T7 RNA polymerase.
The researchers also used the system to make mutant virus particles containing an altered furin recognition motif. Furin cleaves Ebola virus glycoprotein at a highly conserved sequence motif, an event hypothesized to be critical to viral pathogenicity. However, viral
particles carrying the altered motif still showed pathogenicity and ability to replicate in culture. This result illustrates the system’s utility for hastening our understanding of the Ebola virus life cycle and the development of anti-viral agents.
