How can I perform plaque reduction assays for NI susceptibility?
Plaque reduction assays involve plaquing a standard amount of virus (typically 50- 100pfu) in the presence of a titration of the desired drug and a virus control (without drug). The point at which the number of plaques formed is reduced to 50% of that of the virus control is the IC50 for that drug. This assay can be performed on 6 well plates, using agarose as the overlay. Alternatively, the semi solid overlay Avicel (a microcrystalline cellulose) can be used to perform this assay on 96 well plates to allow greater throughput, or the inclusion of replicate titrations to give more robust data.
