Recombinant viruses with heterologous envelope proteins

A recombinant virus of the Paramyxoviridae family comprising a nonparamyxoviral envelope protein capable of mediating entry of said recombinant virus into a mammalian cell.

An enveloped recombinant vertebrate virus comprising a heterologous envelope protein, wherein said envelope protein is capable of mediating entry of the recombinant virus into a mammalian cell, wherein the recombinant virus has been stored under storage conditions for at least 3.5 days, wherein infectivity of the recombinant virus at the end of said at least 3.5 days is at least 60% of that at the beginning of said at least 3.5 days, and wherein said storage conditions are such that the average infectivity of a wild-type virus of the same species as the recombinant virus is reduced by more than 40% after said at least 3.5 days under said storage conditions.

An enveloped recombinant vertebrate virus comprising a heterologous envelope protein, wherein said envelope protein includes an ectodomain of a baculovirus transmembrane protein and is capable of mediating entry of the recombinant virus into a mammalian cell, and wherein the recombinant virus is not a lentivirus.

A mammalian cell comprising:

• an expression cassette encoding an envelope protein comprising an ectodomain of a baculovirus transmembrane protein;
• and one or more expression vectors comprising or encoding the genome of an infection- defective or infection-attenuated mammalian virus, wherein said mammalian virus after being assembled in said mammalian cell comprises said envelope protein which provides the assembled virus with improved infectivity.

A mammalian cell comprising a stably-introduced expression cassette that encodes an envelope protein comprising an ectodomain of a baculovirus transmembrane protein.