Researchers find newer, safer way to study Zika virus replication

The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), in conjunction with the Southwest University in Chongqing, China and the University of Lueven in Belgium, recently developed a way to replicate the basic structure of the Zika virus without the genes that make the virus infectious.

The research teams published their findings in the journal EBioMedicine.

The segments of viral genome that can replicate on their own, independent of the cellular chromosome, are called replicons. The new Zika replicon has some of the genes that give the virus its structure deleted, thus removing the parts that make it infectious. The researchers said this development will make the virus safer to work with and study.

The replicon was engineered by attaching genes that allow the researchers to tag certain parts of the virus they are interested in. Luciferase, a chemical which gives fireflies their glow, was used to make targeted viral components light up, making the replication process much easier to observe.

“One of these replicons can be used to locate portions of the viral molecule that block or halt viral replication, making it a powerful tool for vaccine development,” Pei-Yong Shi, senior author of the study, said. “The other newly-developed replicon was designed to study potential antiviral agents by differentiating between when the virus is making copies of itself and when it’s altering its structure. Knowing when and how the virus is mutating is important, as evolution is what makes viruses more adept at invading hosts like humans or animals or become more damaging once inside the host.”

Contributors to the study include UTMB’s Xuping Xie, Jing Zou, Shan Chao, Yujiao Yang; and Dieudonné Buh Kum, Kai Dallmeier and Johan Neyts from the University of Leuven in Belgium.