A standardized approach to the evaluation of antivirals against DNA viruses: Orthopox-, adeno-, and herpesviruses

Publication date: Available online 1 October 2018Source: Antiviral ResearchAuthor(s): Caroll B. Hartline, Kathy A. Keith, Jessica Eagar, Emma A. Harden, Terry L. Bowlin, Mark N. PrichardAbstractThe search for new compounds with a broad spectrum of antiviral activity is important and requires the evaluation of many compounds against several distinct viruses. Researchers attempting to develop new antiviral therapies for DNA virus infections currently use a variety of cell lines, assay conditions and measurement methods to determine in vitro drug efficacy, making it difficult to compare results from within the same laboratory as well as between laboratories. In this paper we describe a common assay platform designed to facilitate the parallel evaluation of antiviral activity against herpes simplex virus type 1, herpes simplex virus type 2, varicella-zoster virus, cytomegalovirus, vaccinia virus, cowpox virus, and adenovirus. The automated assays utilize monolayers of primary human foreskin fibroblast cells in 384-well plates as a common cell substrate and cytopathic effects and cytotoxicity are quantified with CellTiter-Glo. Data presented demonstrate that each of the assays is highly robust and yields data that are comparable to those from other traditional assays, such as plaque reduction assays. The assays proved to be both accurate and robust and afford an in depth assessment of antiviral activity against the diverse class of viruses with very small quantities of test compou...
Source: Antiviral Therapy - Category: Virology Source Type: research