Development and characterization of a packaging cell line for pseudo-infectious yellow fever virus particle generation

Introduction: Pseudo-infectious yellow fever viral particles (YFV-PIVs) have been used to study vaccines and viral packaging. Here, we report the development of a packaging cell line, which expresses the YFV prM/E proteins. Methods: HEK293 cells were transfected with YFV prM/E and C (84 nt) genes to generate HEK293-YFV-PrM/E-opt. The cells were evaluated for their ability to express the heterologous proteins and to package the replicon repYFV-17D-LucIRES, generating YFV-PIVs. Results: The expression of prM/E proteins was confirmed, and the cell line trans-packaged the replicon for recovery of a reporter for the YFV-PIVs. Conclusions: HEK293-YFV-prM/E-opt trans-packaging capacity demonstrates its possible biotechnology application.