Genetically modified VSVNJ vector is capable of accommodating a large foreign gene insert and allows high level gene expression

Abstract It is desirable to develop a RNA virus vector capable of accommodating large foreign genes for high level gene expression. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has been used as a gene expression vector, especially Indiana serotype (VSV Ind ), but less with New Jersey serotype (VSV NJ ). Here, we report constructions of genetically modified rVSV NJ vector carrying various lengths of human hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-structural (NS) protein genes, level of inserted gene expression and characterization of rVSV NJ . We modified the M gene of VSV NJ by changing methionine to arginine at positions 48 and 51 (rVSV NJ -M) ( Kim and Kang, 2007 ) for construction of rVSV NJ with various lengths of HCV non-structural genes. The NS polyprotein genes of HCV were inserted between the G and L genes of the rVSV NJ -M vector, and recombinant VSV NJ -M viruses with HCV gene inserts were recovered by the reverse genetics. The recombinant VSV NJ -M vector with the HCV NS genes express high levels of all different forms of the NS proteins. The electron microscopic examination showed that lengths of recombinant VSV NJ -M without gene of interests, VSV NJ -M with a gene of HCV NS3 and NS4A (VSV NJ -M-NS3/4A), VSV NJ -M with a gene of HCV NS4AB plus NS5AB (VSV NJ -M-NS4AB/5AB), and VSV NJ -M carrying a gene of HCV NS3, NS4AB, and NS5AB (VSV NJ -M-NS3/4AB/5AB) were 172 ± 10.5 nm, 201 ± 12.5 nm, 226 ± 12.9 nm, and 247 ± 18.2 nm, respectively. The lengths of recombinant VSVs increased approximately 10 nm by insertion of 1 kb of foreign genes. The diameter of these recombinant viruses also increased slightly by longer HCV gene inserts. Our results showed that the recombinant VSV NJ -M vector can accommodate as much as 6000 bases of the foreign gene. We compared the magnitude of the IFN induction in mouse fibroblast L(Y) cells infected with rVSV NJ wild type and rVSV NJ M mutant viruses and show that the rVSV NJ M mutant virus infection induced a higher level of the IFN-β compare to the wild type virus. In addition, we showed that the NS protein expression level in IFN-incompetent cells (Mouse-L) infected with rVSV NJ -M viruses was higher than in IFN-competent L(Y) cells. In addition, we confirmed that HCV NS protein genes were expressed and properly processed. We also confirmed that NS3 protein expressed from the rVSV NJ -M cleaves NS polyprotein at junctions and that NS4A plays an important role as a co-factor for NS3 protease to cleave at the NS4B/5A site and at the NS5A/5B site.