While only the spike protein is commonly used for pseudotyping the team was curious to see if including the other SARS CoV-2 proteins would influence pseudotyped virion infectivity. This was because in a real-world scenario the spike protein does not operate in isolation but in conjunction with other viral proteins that are engaged in various auxiliary roles during the course of infection the researchers said. The team combined a type of virus vector called the lentivirus with a Covid-19 spike protein to produce spike lentiviruses. Twenty-four different SARS CoV-2 viral proteins were included in the pseudovirus ensemble along with a fluorescent reporter to detect the infected cells. The infectivity of each of the pseudovirus containing one of the twenty-four proteins was studied. With this the researchers found that pseudovirus produced with the N-protein had higher infectivity than those containing other proteins. They also found that a synthetic microbody that neutralises spike-pseudotyped viruses was less effective against the N protein-containing pseudotype. They observed similar patterns during experiments with a spike mutant that is found in the UK variant.

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