BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

SARS-CoV-2 fluorescent tool for drug development; plus Alzheimer's biomarkers, Nature, National Academies and Pylum

BioCentury's roundup of preclinical news

April 17, 2020 1:37 PM UTC

DNA-based tool for developing COVID-19 countermeasures

University of Texas Medical Branch researchers have created a fluorescent SARS-CoV-2 DNA clone as a reporter tool for preclinically assessing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Described in Cell Host and Microbe, the reporter is a reverse transcribed SARS-CoV-2 genome where the seventh open reading frame has been replaced by a gene encoding a green fluorescent protein. In cell culture, the reporter’s infectious dynamics were similar to that of the original virus; fluorescence correlated with viral levels; and interferon α (IFNα) dose-dependently reduced fluorescence, validating the tool’s use for COVID-19 countermeasure development...