Design and Application of Biosafe Coronavirus Engineering Systems without Virulence
Guoqiang Wu,
Qiaoyu Li,
Junbiao Dai,
Guobin Mao,
Yingxin Ma
Affiliations
Guoqiang Wu
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
Qiaoyu Li
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
Junbiao Dai
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
Guobin Mao
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
Yingxin Ma
CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Synthetic Genomics, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China
In the last twenty years, three deadly zoonotic coronaviruses (CoVs)—namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2—have emerged. They are considered highly pathogenic for humans, particularly SARS-CoV-2, which caused the 2019 CoV disease pandemic (COVID-19), endangering the lives and health of people globally and causing unpredictable economic losses. Experiments on wild-type viruses require biosafety level 3 or 4 laboratories (BSL-3 or BSL-4), which significantly hinders basic virological research. Therefore, the development of various biosafe CoV systems without virulence is urgently needed to meet the requirements of different research fields, such as antiviral and vaccine evaluation. This review aimed to comprehensively summarize the biosafety of CoV engineering systems. These systems combine virological foundations with synthetic genomics techniques, enabling the development of efficient tools for attenuated or non-virulent vaccines, the screening of antiviral drugs, and the investigation of the pathogenic mechanisms of novel microorganisms.
