Pseudotyping

Pseudotyping is the process of producing viruses or viral vectors in combination with foreign viral envelope proteins. The result is a pseudotyped virus particle. With this method, the foreign viral envelope proteins can be used to alter host tropism or an increased/decreased stability of the virus particles. Pseudotyped particles do not carry the genetic material to produce additional viral envelope proteins, so the phenotypic changes cannot be passed on to progeny viral particles.

For example, pseudotyping allows one to specify the character of the envelope proteins. A frequently used protein is the glycoprotein G of the Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), short VSV-G. These envelope proteins transduce to all cell types.