Pseudotype viruses - applications and troubleshooting

Pseudotype viruses are rapidly establishing themselves as important research and diagnostic tools of basic and clinical scientists facilitating the detailed study of individual viral genes, host cell receptors and highly pathogenic viruses, circumventing the need for high-level biosafety containment. The switching of surface envelope proteins expressed on the surface of these pseudotypes enables them to be used as surrogate viruses in neutralization/antiviral screening assays and for the study of cell–virus receptor interactions. This meeting encompasses the many diverse applications of pseudotype technologies from a practical, translational and public health perspective.

Meeting Chair: Dr Nigel James Temperton, 
Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Greenwich and Kent, Kent


This event  has CPD accreditation


Who Should Attend

• Public and animal health scientists.
• Individuals establishing diagnostic assays for viruses.
• Epidemiologists, virologists, immunologists, R&D, pre-clinical vaccinologists.
  
  

9:00 – 9:45          Registration

9:45 – 10:00        Introduction by the Chairs:  Dr Nigel James Temperton, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Greenwich and Kent, Kent

10:00 – 10:30      Current progress with serological assays for exotic emerging/re-emerging viruses
Dr Janet Daly, Nottingham University, UK
Challenges exist in the development of serological assays for (re-)emerging viruses. Work with live virus is often restricted to specialised containment laboratories, thus limiting capacity to perform traditional serological assays such as the plaque reduction neutralisation test (PRNT). Diagnosis by ELISA-based assays using killed virus or purified or recombinant viral proteins offer an alternative. However, ELISA-based assays are often less specific than PRNT. Sample volume may be limited, for example where cerebrospinal fluid samples are required to confirm a viral cause of encephalitis. Pseudotype virus neutralisation assays offer the potential to address many of these issues.

10:30 – 11:00      Virus pseudotypes and pandemic preparedness
Dr Nigel James Temperton, Medway School of Pharmacy, The Universities of Greenwich and Kent, Kent

11:00 – 11:30       Speakers’ photo then mid-morning break and trade show

Please try to visit all the exhibition stands during your day at this event.  Not only do our sponsors enable Euroscicon to keep the registration fees competitive, but they are also here specifically to talk to you

11:30 – 12:00       Retroviral pseudotypes for equine vaccine serology
Dr Simon Scott, Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, UK

12:00  – 12:30      Interrogating the antibody response to rabies and lyssaviruses using retroviral pseudotyping
Dr Edward Wright, Westminster University, UK
Rabies virus is responsible for ~70,000 human deaths a year even though highly efficacious vaccines are available.  A reliable figure for the number of deaths due to related lyssavirus species is unknown.  Within the lyssavirus genus there are 11 species that can be classified into phylogroups, based primarily on their antibody cross neutralisation profile.  As the lyssavirus glycoprotein is the major target of a neutralising antibody response a pseudotype-based neutralisation assay was developed to elucidate the importance of known glycoprotein epitopes in virus neutralisation.  The assay has also proved useful for sero-epidemiological studies and testing existing and novel antivirals.

12:30 – 13:30     Lunch and trade show

13:30 – 14:00       Dissecting serological responses to ruminant viruses using retrovirus pseudotypes

Dr David Griffiths, Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, UK

14:00 – 14:30      Quantifying the infectivity and neutralisation of companion animal viruses using retroviral pseudotypes

Professor Brian Willett, University of Glasgow Scotland

The study of viral diseases of many species is hindered by the paucity of reagents with which viral infectivity may be measured. The ability to generate retroviral  pseudotypes bearing envelope glycoproteins from diverse viral genera offers a unique opportunity to investigate hitherto intractable questions in viral pathogenesis. Pseudotypes bearing FIV and FeLV Envs have been used to elucidate viral receptors, to quantify neutralising antibodies and to stage clinical disease, while pseudotypes bearing lyssaviral glycoproteins have facilitated the detection of neutralising antibodies in sera from wild carnivores. Retroviral pseudotypes offer a novel means to broaden our understanding of viral pathogenesis.

14:30 – 15:00       Afternoon Tea/Coffee  and  trade show

15:00– 16:00       Question and Answer Session

Delegates will be asked to submit questions to a panel of experts.  Questions can be submitted before the event or on the day

16:00  - 16:30       Use of HIV Pseudovirions to investigate susceptibility to Antiretrovirals

Katherine Sutherland, Microbiology Services, Colindale Public Health England

Research using HIV pseudovirions can be carried out at Containment Level 2 making research quicker, safer and cheaper.  We use pseudovirions based on the HIV Gag-Pol expression vector, p8.9NSX, which encodes the HIV structural proteins and enzymes necessary for viral replication.  Patient-derived HIV genes can be inserted into p8.9NSX+ separately or in combination.  Pseudovirions comprise a non-HIV envelope glycoprotein enabling infection of common cell types and an HIV-based genome encoding the luciferase reporter gene to enable quantification of infection.  We use pseudovirions to investigate susceptibility to different antiretrovirals, determine viral replicative fitness as well as viral structure using electron microscopy.

16:30  - 17:00       Talk to be confirmed

Dr Alex Tarr, Queen's Medical Centre

17:00                     Chairman’s summing up

The Deadline for abstract submissions for oral presentation is July 10th 2013
Abstracts for poster presentation only can be submitted up to two weeks before the event
There will be a best poster prize.

You can download the instructions for authors at 
www.euroscicon.com/AbstractsForOralAndPosterPresentation.pdf 



Keywords:  Retroviral pseudotype, virus serology, neutralization assays, pandemic preparedness, virus tropism,zoonotic emerging viruses, serological assays,Rabies virus, lyssaviruses, pseudotypes, vaccines, antivirals, sheep, retrovirus, jaagsiekte, ruminant, serology, Feline, retrovirus, rabies, FIV, FeLV, HIV, Retrovirus, Antiretrovirals, susceptiblity, resistance

Event Web Site:   www.regonline.co.uk/pseuVirus2013