h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I came across references to somethings called 'pseudoviruses' today, but haven't been able to find a description of what a pseudovirus actually *is*. Can anyone help?

(If it makes any difference, the viruses I'm lookin up are of the biological rather than computer variety).

I don't know, but have a guess I think might be on the right lines. There are lots of other organisms around virus scale or smaller which aren't true virii, but still could be said to infect an organism: viroids, virusoids, perhaps even plasmids?

Well this link here

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11581382&dopt=AbstractPlus&holding=f1000%2Cf1000m%2Cisrctn

Seems to be saying that papilloma pseudo-virus is a potential vaccine against the real virus. In this case it's the real virus coating with incorrect (or foreign) DNA inside.
Hence to the immune system it looks like the real virus as it has the correct antigens on its surface to induce an immune response like the real virus but won't do any of the other stuff the real virus can do.

So it is masquerading as the virus basically.