ArticlePeerJ2021
A synthetic defective interfering SARS-CoV-2.
Article in PeerJ, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Engineered RNA-based activation system for coronavirus sensing in live cells.Biodesign research · 2025Article
- Review
- Generation of "OP7 chimera" defective interfering influenza A particle preparations free of infectious virus that show antiviral efficacy in mice.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Cheating leads to the evolution of multipartite viruses.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Proof-of-concept for effective antiviral activity of anFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Antiviral Activity of Oligonucleotides Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Genomic RNA Stem-Loop Sequences within the 3'-End of the ORF1b.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Evolution of naturally arising SARS-CoV-2 defective interfering particles.Communications biology · 2022Article
- A single-administration therapeutic interfering particle reduces SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding and pathogenesis in hamsters.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Virus-like Particles: Measures and Biological Functions.Viruses · 2022Review
- A Defective Viral Particle Approach to COVID-19.Cells · 2022Review
- Modeling the therapeutic potential of defective interfering particles in the presence of immunity.Virus evolution · 2022Article
- Genetic Engineering Systems to Study Human Viral Pathogens from the Coronaviridae Family.Molecular biology · 2022Article
- Therapeutic interfering particles exploiting viral replication and assembly mechanisms show promising performance: a modelling study.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The evolution of cheating in viruses.Nature communications · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Viruses thrive by exploiting the cells they infect, but in order to replicate and infect other cells they must produce viral proteins. As a result, viruses are also susceptible to exploitation by defective versions of themselves that do not produce such proteins. A defective viral genome with deletions in protein-coding genes could still replicate in cells coinfected with full-length viruses. Such a defective genome could even replicate faster due to its shorter size, interfering with the replication of the virus. We have created a synthetic defective interfering version of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic, assembling parts of the viral genome that do not code for any functional protein but enable the genome to be replicated and packaged. This synthetic defective genome replicates three times faster than SARS-CoV-2 in coinfected cells, and interferes with it, reducing the viral load of infected cells by half in 24 hours. The synthetic genome is transmitted as efficiently as the full-length genome, suggesting the location of the putative packaging signal of SARS-CoV-2. A version of such a synthetic construct could be used as a self-promoting antiviral therapy: by enabling replication of the synthetic genome, the virus would promote its own demise.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.