VECTORS FOR DETERMINING VECTOR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ANTI-VIRAL DRUG COMPOUND AND METHODS USING THEREFOR

摘要

The invention provides a method for determining susceptibility of a virus to an anti-viral drug comprising: (a) culturing host cells in the presence of said antiviral drug, wherein said host cells comprise a vector for determining said susceptibility comprising a viral segment and an indicator gene, wherein expression of said indicator gene depends on the activity of a gene encoded by said viral segment, and said vector does not comprise all viral genes necessary to produce an infectious viral particle; (b) measuring the amount of expression of said indicator gene in said host cells; and (c) comparing the amount of expression of said indicator gene as measured in step (b) with a reference amount of expression of said indicator gene, wherein the difference between amount of expression of said indicator gene measured in step (b) relative said reference amount of expression correlates with the susceptibility of said virus to the antiviral drug, thereby determining the susceptibility of said virus to the antiviral drug. This invention also provides a method for determining resistance of a virus infecting a patient to an antiviral drug. This invention also provides a method for evaluating the biological effectiveness of a candidate antiviral drug compound; vectors for determining the susceptibility of a virus to an antiviral drug comprising a patient-derived viral segment and an indicator gene; and packaging host cells transformed with the vector for determining the susceptibility of a virus to an antiviral drug.