Recombinant Retroviral Particles: Technology of Poduction and Application as Positive Controls for PCR Diagnostics of Dangerous Viral Infections

Abstract

Objective. Construction of positive control samples based on recombinant retroviral particles and their application in RT-PCR diagnostic assays for RNA detection of agents of dangerous and particularly dangerous viral infections.Materials and methods. Molecular biological, genetic engineering, and immunological methods were used: polymerase chain reaction, restriction, ligation, cloning, transformation, transfection, flow cytometry.Results and discussion. Technology of positive control samples producing based on recombinant virions has been developed and tested. It includes construction of retroviral vector with cloned diagnostic sequence of the viral genome; obtaining a packaging cell line producing chimeric retroviral particles; determination of recombinant virions titer by flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction; application of the obtained preparation as a control sample for PCR diagnostics of infectious agents. Positive controls based on retroviral vectors as carriers of genomic RNA fragments of pathogenic viruses were used in the development of PCR diagnostic kits for dangerous and particularly dangerous viral infections. Their application increased the kits quality and made it possible to exclude the work with concentrated hazardous infectious agents (Lassa virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, Puumala virus).

Keywords

• rna-containing viruses
• molecular-genetic diagnostics
• recombinant retroviral particles
• positive control