Identifying Inhibitors of Highly-pathogenic Arenaviruses Through Minigenome and Recombinant Virus Reporter Systems
This technology includes a novel minigenome assay for arenaviruses that allows for high-throughput screening (HTS) of potential antiviral compounds. To complement to minigenome assay, we have also developed a technique to generate recombinant arenaviruses expressing a reporter protein to allow to HTS of antiviral compounds at BSL-4. This allows for confirmation of potential hits identified by the initial minigenome screen. Human infections with some Arenaviruses such as Lassa (LASV) and Junin (JUNV) virus can result in viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) disease.