To address the urgent and immediate need for R&D tools for the fight against the public health threat from SARS-CoV-2, IBT Bioservices now offers a pseudotype virus system to assay inhibition of infectivity in a BSL-2 environment. Briefly, Vesicular Stomatitis virus (VSV) glycoprotein gene (G) has been substituted with SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein (rVSV pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 Spike). The recombinant rVSV-DG SARS-CoV-2 Spike has been incorporated into a convenient luciferase-based neutralization assay for evaluating the efficacy of drug candidates that target Spike-mediated infection (Figure 1). This system is similar to previously published and validated VSV pseudotype platform for Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus^1,2,3.

Key advantages: The heavily glycosylated Spike proteins on its surface give Coronavirus a crown-like appearance. These Spike proteins recognize the ACE2 receptor on the host cell surface to facilitate viral entry and fusion (inset). Anti-Spike antibodies have been detected in convalescent patient plasma suggesting the S is immunogenic. It is a key determinant of host and cell tropism, antigenicity and immunogenicity, interspecies transmission as well as pathogenesis⁴ therefore an attractive candidate for antiviral inhibitors and vaccine development^5,6,7.