Disease relevance of Lassa Virus

• Vaccinia recombinant expressing Lassa-virus internal nucleocapsid protein protects guineapigs against Lassa fever [1].
• We tested as potential vaccines in rhesus monkeys a closely related virus, Mopeia virus (two monkeys), and a recombinant vaccinia virus containing the Lassa virus glycoprotein gene, V-LSGPC (four monkeys) [2].
• The surface glycoprotein of the Lassa virus, a member of the arenaviridae family, is synthesized as a 76-kDa precursor (GP-C) that is posttranslationally cleaved into an N-terminal 44-kDa subunit and a C-terminal membrane-anchored 36-kDa subunit [3].
• Both proteins reside in PML bodies, a cellular target of the LCMV and Lassa virus Z proteins [4].
• In order to study human T-cell reactivity to single Lassa virus proteins, the nucleoprotein (NP) of Lassa virus, strain Josiah, was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli, and affinity purified [5].

High impact information on Lassa Virus

• The Lassa virus glycoprotein precursor GP-C is proteolytically processed by subtilase SKI-1/S1P [3].
• We demonstrated that Lassa Z protein efficiently produces VLPs and uses cellular factors, Vps4A, Vps4B, and Tsg101, in budding, suggesting that Lassa virus budding uses the multivesicular body pathway functionally [6].
• The degree of IFN sensitivity of a Lassa virus isolate did not correlate with disease severity in human patients [4].
• Three low-passage Lassa virus strains (AV, NL, and CSF), isolated from humans with mild to fulminant Lassa fever, were tested [4].
• Lassa virus is an enveloped virus with glycoprotein spikes on its surface [7].

Chemical compound and disease context of Lassa Virus

• Rhesus monkeys were experimentally infected with Lassa virus to establish their suitability as a nonhuman primate model for the human disease and to test the protective efficacy of ribavirin, an antiviral drug [8].
• Lassa virus was purified from culture fluids of infected CV-1 monkey kidney cells and its structural proteins analysed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [9].
• The nucleoprotein of Lassa virus, strain Josiah, was expressed in Escherichia coli as an N-terminally truncated, histidine-tagged recombinant protein [10].
• The Lassa virus plaque assay satisfied the criteria proposed by Cooper [1961] for determining satisfactory plaque technique [11].
• Small-scale screening identified a class of imidazole nucleoside/nucleotide analogues with antiviral activity against Lassa virus [12].

Biological context of Lassa Virus

• Identification of a novel consensus sequence at the cleavage site of the Lassa virus glycoprotein [13].
• In conclusion, the high pathogenicity of Lassa virus compared to LCMV is probably not due to increased resistance to the effects of IFN-alpha or IFN-gamma [4].
• The coding region of the gene for the nucleocapsid protein of Lassa virus has been inserted into the genome of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV) using the transfer vector pAcYM1, so that expression of the foreign DNA is under the control of the promoter of the AcNPV polyhedrin gene [14].
• Molecular cloning of Lassa virus RNA: nucleotide sequence and expression of the nucleocapsid protein gene [15].
• Comparison of the amino acid sequences of the translation products with those of two Lassa virus strains showed considerable conservation, with 74 and 80% identity for the two glycoproteins G1 and G2, and 74% identity for the N protein [16].

Anatomical context of Lassa Virus

• This report shows for the first time that seropositive individuals from areas of endemicity have very strong memory CD4(+) T-cell responses against the NP of Lassa virus, which are partly strain specific and partly cross-reactive with other Lassa virus strains [5].
• Fractionated RNAs were translated in rabbit reticulocyte lysates, and translation products were precipitated with monoclonal antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein of Lassa virus [17].

Gene context of Lassa Virus

• Comparison of full-length gene sequences for four Lassa virus strains representing the four lineages showed that the NP gene (up to 23.8% nucleotide difference and 12.0% amino acid difference) is more variable than the glycoprotein genes [18].
• Lassa virus Z protein is a matrix protein and sufficient for the release of virus-like particles [corrected] [7].
• However, difficulties have been encountered in using the PRNT for LCM virus, while conflicting views have been expressed about the reliability and efficacy of the test with Lassa virus [11].
• Lassa virus is the causative agent of a hemorrhagic fever endemic in west Africa. The RNA genome of Lassa virus encodes the glycoprotein precursor GP-C, a nucleoprotein (NP), the viral polymerase L and a small protein Z (11 kDa) [19].
• Comparison of SKI-1 cleavage efficiency between peptides representing Lassa virus GP2 and CCHF virus Gn cleavage sites suggests that amino acids flanking the RRLL may modulate the efficiency [20].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Lassa Virus

• Infection of cultured Spodoptera frugiperda cells with recombinant virus resulted in the synthesis of high levels of a protein that was indistinguishable from the authentic Lassa virus protein by SDS gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting with a variety of specific immune sera and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) [14].
• More than 3,100 households in 27 selected villages distributed in the main geographic regions of Guinea were surveyed for the presence of Lassa virus-specific IgG antibodies (LVA), using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with Lassa virus nucleocapsid protein expressed in insect cells infected with a recombinant baculovirus as antigen [21].
• Epitope mapping of the Lassa virus nucleoprotein using monoclonal anti-nucleocapsid antibodies [22].
• The Lassa virus glycoprotein precursor, GPC, and the posttranslational cleavage products, G1 and G2, were shown by Western blot analysis to be properly expressed in cells infected with the recombinant virus [23].

References