This pseudotyped virus uses recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) to carry the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 (GenBank: MN908947) with multiple mutations initially identified in variant of Omicron (B.1.1.529), and 18-aa cytoplasmic tail truncation for optimal infection.

Infection of cells with this pseudotyped virus carrying luciferase reporter results in high level luciferase activity. The titration result showing the starting 2-fold diluted pseudovirus generates signal ~10,000-fold higher than uninfected control (cell alone as background). The neutralizing activity of two control mAbs was tested by using this pseudotyped virus.

As pseudovirus infectivity of rVSV without its original G is restricted to a single round of replication, the pseudotypes can be handled using BSL-2 containment practices. Applications include Anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody screening at high throughput, Anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug screening at high throughput and SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus transduction of target cells for viral entry and functional studies.