Recombinant Varicella-Zoster Virus Vaccines as Platforms for Expression of Foreign Antigens

Figure 1

Cosmid approach to generate rVZV. (a) The 125 kb VZV genome consists of a unique long (UL) component flanked by internal and terminal inverted repeat sequences (IRL and TRL) covalently linked to a unique short (US) component bracketed by internal and terminal inverted repeats (IRS and TRS) [17]. (b) Four cosmids (30–45 kb), representing the entire VZV genome, are transfected into MeWo cells yields infectious virus. In this example, a foreign gene with a promoter is inserted into cosmid A, within the intergenic region between VZV ORFs 12 and 13.