Influenza Pseudoviruses

Influenza A & B Pseudotyped Viral Particles

Influenza Reporter Virus Particles (RVPs) are a ready-to-use substitute for live influenza virus in infectivity and neutralization assays. These non-replicative, pseudotyped virus-like particles are ideal for vaccine developers and other influenza researchers—and RVPs for even the most pathogenic strains are safe for your BSL-2 lab.

RVPs display strain-specific hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins on a heterologous viral core. Their modified genome expresses a convenient GFP or luciferase reporter gene that produces a quantitative readout of infectivity that’s easy to detect on standard instruments.

Unlike live influenza virus, Influenza RVPs are produced by direct expression of viral proteins encoded by cDNA. This means the product is the same every time, and we can easily modify the HA sequence to suit your research needs.

With this reliable, off-the-shelf reagent, your lab team will spend less time propagating virus, training personnel, and sequencing stocks. That will leave more time to carry out vital tasks—like generating valuable data.
Schematic of an influenza pseudovirus particle. HA and NA proteins in a lipid bilayer surround a lentivirus core with a GFP or luciferase reporter gene inside.

Applications

✔Antibody neutralization
✔Serum screening
✔High-throughput assays

Advantages over live virus

✔All strains safe for BSL-2 
✔Quantitative readout without staining 
✔Point mutations or novel strains in weeks

Influenza Pseudovirus Product Offerings

For your pandemic and seasonal influenza research, we offer RVPs with surface proteins from a variety of influenza A and influenza B strains. Our pseudovirus catalog includes strains from the following subtypes and lineages (for strain-level details, please follow the link below to view the full RVP catalog):
Virus Subtype or lineage
Influenza A H1N1
Influenza A H3N2
Influenza A H5N1
Influenza A H7N9
Influenza B Yamagata
Influenza B Victoria

 

VIEW THE FULL RVP CATALOG
With RVPs, it’s easy to access new strains and to start your neutralization studies quickly. We regularly add new seasonal and pandemic strains to our catalog; we release WHO-recommended seasonal influenza strains as soon as 5 weeks after they are announced.

Need something you don’t see? We can create custom RVPs to meet your needs.


Related product: TiterSafe is a ready-to-use reagent that can substitute for live influenza virus in your existing hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay.
It’s a time-saving, safer reagent for vaccine developers.

Consistent & Easy Neutralization Assays

Reporter Virus Particles (RVPs) provide highly reproducible and specific neutralization data to support your research.

Our ISO 9001-certified quality management system means you can count on reliable reagents that perform as expected in your lab. As the graph shows (below left), influenza RVP infectivity data is highly consistent across production lots. Our careful attention to production and critical quality attributes means you can focus on your research.

With Influenza RVPs, you can verify your antibody’s specificity and assess its ability to block infection. Below right, results from a neutralization assay show that RVPs faithfully present influenza surface proteins. The RVP neutralization experiment generates a curve that enables calculation of metrics for your sample, such as NT50 or IC50.

To learn more about establishing your own RVP neutralization assay, visit Pseudovirus Neutralization Assays: A how-to guide for getting started.
A pseudovirus infectivity curve plots microliters of RVP input on the X-axis and % infected cells on the Y. Results show consistent curves across 6 lots, with infection reaching 75% at inputs of 5 microliters and up. A neutralization curve plots log of MAb concentration on the X axis against % normalized infection on the Y. Results show specific neutralization of H5N1 RVPs by an H5N1 neutralizing MAb but not a negative control MAb.

(Left) Infectivity assays comparing lots of Influenza A/Darwin/9/2021 RVPs were performed in 384-well plates. MDCK-SIAT1 cells were infected for 1 hour, then incubated for 72 hours prior to readout by GFP fluorescence. (Right) Infection of HEK-293T cells with Influenza A/Indonesia/5/2005 RVPs was inhibited by a neutralizing monoclonal antibody (Sino #68031-H011). A non-neutralizing control antibody did not inhibit infection.

Featured Webinar: Innovative Research Tools to Combat Biological Threats

In this hour-long webinar, leaders in industry and academia discussed technologies, experiences, and strategies within the study and development of therapeutics against emerging viruses, including influenza.
At 27:15, James E. Crowe, Jr., M.D., discusses his work on influenza, including the use of pseudovirus RVPs in place of live virus for neutralization assays.

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