Development of A MERS-CoV Replicon Cell Line for Antiviral Screening.
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.
['Chen|Jing|J|', 'Hu|Bing-Jie|BJ|', 'Zhao|Kai|K|', 'Luo|Yun|Y|', 'Lin|Hao-Feng|HF|', 'Shi|Zheng-Li|ZL|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8089-163X']
D000998:Antiviral Agents D002460:Cell Line D018352:Coronavirus Infections D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical D006801:Humans D061466:Lopinavir D065207:Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus D012093:Replicon
Replicon cell line Antiviral screening Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Luciferase reporter gene