Using Synthetic Biology to Create a Safe and Stable Ebola Surrogate for Effective Development of Detection and Therapy Platforms

Ebolavirus is responsible for a deadly hemorrhagic fever that has claimed thousands of
lives in Africa and could become a global health threat. Because of the danger of
infection, novel Ebola research is restricted to BSL-4 laboratories; this slows progress
due to both the cost and expertise required to operate these laboratories. The development
of a safe surrogate would speed research and reduce risk to researchers.
Two highly conserved Ebola gene segments—from the glycoprotein and
nucleoprotein genes—were designed with modifications preventing expression while
maintaining sequence integrity, spliced into high copy number plasmids, cloned into
E.coli, and tested for stability, safety, and potential research applications. The surrogates
were stable over 2-3 months, had a negligible mutation rate (<0.165% over the
experiment), and were detectable in human blood down to 5.8E3-1.17E4 surrogates/mL.
These protocols could be used to safely simulate other pathogens and promote infectious
disease treatment and detection research.