More Than Just Gene Therapy Vectors: Lentiviral Vector Pseudotypes for Serological Investigation

Serological assays detecting neutralising antibodies are important for determining the immune responses following infection or vaccination and are also often considered a correlate of protection. The target of neutralising antibodies is usually located in the Envelope protein on the viral surface, which mediates cell entry. As such, presentation of the Envelope protein on a lentiviral particle represents a convenient alternative to handling of a potentially high containment virus or for those viruses with no established cell culture system. The flexibility, relative safety and, in most cases, ease of production of lentiviral pseudotypes, have led to their use in serological assays for many applications such as the evaluation of candidate vaccines, screening and characterization of anti-viral therapeutics, and sero-surveillance. Above all, the speed of production of the lentiviral pseudotypes, once the envelope sequence is published, makes them important tools in the response to viral outbreaks, as shown during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this review, we provide an overview of the landscape of the serological applications of pseudotyped lentiviral vectors, with a brief discussion on their production and batch quality analysis. Finally, we evaluate their role as surrogates for the real virus and possible alternatives.