The present invention provides a recombinant nucleic acid comprising: a first nucleic acid sequence encoding a 5' alphavirus replication recognition sequence； at least one second nucleic acid sequence encoding an alphavirus nonstructural protein； at least one alphavirus subgenomic promoter； at least one IRES element； at least one heterologous nucleic acid； and a third nucleic acid encoding a 3' alphavirus replication recognition sequence. Further provided are methods of making alphavirus particles comprising a recombinant nucleic acid of this invention and methods of using the compositions of this invention. Also provided is a recombinant helper nucleic acid comprising: a first nucleic acid sequence encoding a 5' alphavirus replication recognition sequence； an alphavirus subgenomic promoter； an IRES element； a second nucleic acid encoding an alphavirus structural protein； and a third nucleic acid encoding a 3' alphavirus replication recognition sequence.
