Construction and Generation of a Recombinant Senecavirus a Stably Expressing the NanoLuc Luciferase for Quantitative Antiviral Assay

Senecavirus A (SVA), also known as Seneca Valley virus, is a recently emerged picornavirus that can cause swine vesicular disease, posing a great threat to the global swine industry. A recombinant reporter virus (rSVA-Nluc) stably expressing the nanoluciferase (Nluc) gene between SVA 2A and 2B was developed to rapidly detect anti-SVA neutralizing antibodies and establish a high-throughput screen for antiviral agents. This recombinant virus displayed similar growth kinetics as the parental virus and remained stable for more than 10 passages in BHK-21 cells. As a proof-of-concept for its utility for rapid antiviral screening, this reporter virus was used to rapidly quantify anti-SVA neutralizing antibodies in 13 swine sera samples and screen for antiviral agents, including interferons ribavirin and interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). Subsequently, interfering RNAs targeting different regions of the SVA genome were screened using the reporter virus. This reporter virus (rSVA-Nluc) represents a useful tool for rapid and quantitative screening and evaluation of antivirals against SVA.