Protocol for constructing and characterizing recombinant vectored vaccines for rabies virus.

Recombinant vectored vaccines provide economical, rapidly engineered, and tailored immunization strategies. Here, we present a protocol for constructing and characterizing recombinant vectored vaccines for rabies virus (RV). We describe steps for generating replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus (rcVSV) by replacing vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) glycoprotein (G) with RV G gene and for recovering rcVSV by co-transfecting baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells with the antigenomic VSV cDNA plasmid (pVSV). We then detail procedures for the functional, structural, and molecular characterization of generated rcVSV-RV-Gs.