Ebolaviruses

Rachel B. Brouillette, Wendy Maury

Thomas Hoenen, Allison Groseth

Members of the family Filoviridae are filamentous, enveloped, and nonsegmented negative-stranded RNA viruses that can cause severe hemorrhagic disease in humans and nonhuman primates with high mortality rates. Current efforts to analyze the structure and biology of these viruses as well as the development of antivirals have been hindered by the necessity of biosafety level 4 containment (BSL4). Here, we outline how to produce and work with Ebola virus glycoprotein bearing vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) pseudovirions. These pseudovirions can be safely used to evaluate early steps of the filovirus life cycle without need for BSL4 containment. Virus gene expression in the transduced cells is easy to assess since the pseudovirions encode a reporter gene in place of the VSV G glycoprotein gene. Adoption of VSV for use as a pseudovirion system for filovirus GP has significantly expanded access for researchers to study specific aspects of the viral life cycle outside of BSL4 containment and has allowed substantial growth of filovirus research.