{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,13]],"date-time":"2026-01-13T05:07:44Z","timestamp":1768280864440,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,11]],"date-time":"2018-07-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1531267200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key R&amp;D Program of China","award":["2017YFD0200400"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017YFD0200400"]}]},{"name":"Science and Technology Basic Work Program,the Ministry of Science and Technology of China","award":["2013FY113500"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2013FY113500"]}]},{"name":"the strategic priority research program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences","award":["ZDRW-ZS-2016-4"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ZDRW-ZS-2016-4"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The baculovirus-insect cell expression system has been widely used for heterologous protein expression and virus-like particles (VLPs) expression. In this study, we established a new method for antiviral screening targeting to glycoprotein E of flaviviruses based on the baculovirus expression system. ZIKV is a mosquito-borne flavivirus and has posed great threat to the public health. It has been reported that ZIKV infection was associated with microcephaly and serious neurological complications. Our study showed that either ZIKV E or prME protein expressed in insect cells can form VLPs and induce membrane fusion between insect cells. Therefore, the E protein, which is responsible for receptor binding, attachment, and virus fusion during viral entry, achieved proper folding and retained its fusogenic ability in VLPs when expressed in this system. The syncytia in insect cells were significantly reduced by the anti-ZIKV-E specific polyclonal antibody in a dose-dependent manner. AMS, a thiol-conjugating reagent, was also shown to have an inhibitory effect on the E protein induced syncytia and inhibited ZIKV infection by blocking viral entry. Indeed the phenomenon of syncytial formation induced by E protein expressed VLPs in insect cells is common among flaviviruses, including Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), Dengue virus type 2 (DENV-2), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). This inhibition effect on syncytial formation can be developed as a novel, safe, and simple antiviral screening approach for inhibitory antibodies, peptides, or small molecules targeting to E protein of ZIKV and other flaviviruses.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v10070365","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,11]],"date-time":"2018-07-11T10:50:09Z","timestamp":1531306209000},"page":"365","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Establishment of Baculovirus-Expressed VLPs Induced Syncytial Formation Assay for Flavivirus Antiviral Screening"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Shiyu","family":"Dai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yanfang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hualin","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5385-083X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fei","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S3","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jip.2011.05.001","article-title":"Opportunities and challenges for the baculovirus expression system","volume":"107","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. 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