Microneutralization Assay
Micro-neutralization test is a highly sensitive and specific test for detecting virus-specific neutralizing antibodies in human and animal sera. It can be used to detect virus-specific neutralizing antibodies suitable for high-density microplates and their corresponding titers.
Measuring antibody titers against specific viruses is essential for virus research. To detect the antibody titer for specific viruses, several detection methods have been designed. They are all based on a similar principle: mixing the serially-diluted heat-inactivated serum with fixed viruses. Later, the mixture will be added to the appropriate cell lines and incubated. In these assays, it is crucial to keep the virus concentration low enough to detect infection and not saturate the amount of antibody in the serum. This step is critical for making the assay independent of virus concentration and solely dependent on the concentration and efficacy of the serum tested. Therefore, for each new virus, it is important to identify infectious units that can provide clear readings without overcoming the limited number of antibodies in the serum. This can be achieved by testing different concentrations of the virus against a fixed neutralization concentration standard. In high-concentration serum, other inhibitory factors may prevent infection independently of the antibodies present. Therefore, it is vital to obtain pure serum or serum immunized only with the vehicle to determine the baseline neutralization level.
Virus neutralization gives the most accurate answer to whether an individual has antibodies that can neutralize the infectivity of a particular virus strain. Taking influenza virus as an example, this method has the following advantages in detecting influenza virus antibodies.
- Firstly, it mainly detects antibodies to the HA protein of the influenza virus, thereby recognizing functional strain-specific antibodies in human and animal sera.
- Secondly, because of infectious viruses, once a new virus is identified, the analysis can be performed quickly.
Although the traditional neutralization test for influenza viruses (based on inhibiting the formation of cytogenic effects in MDCK cell culture) is time-consuming, laborious, and relatively slow. Using an ELISA microtiter plate, our new micro-neutralization test can provide you high-quality results within two days.
Our Procedures
Figure 1. Overview of the microneutralization assay. (Alexander Klimov, et al. 2012)
Our Services
- Culturing target virus
- Culturing infection test cells
- Microneutralization assay
Our Advantages
- Ensure high efficiency and quality for virus detection services
- Competitive price in the market of virus detection services
- Ensure 24/7 online service
We combine infection and analytical expertise to provide our clients with the most powerful portfolio of antiviral and antimicrobial in vitro testing services. Facing an increasing demand for new antiviral and antimicrobial compounds for the treatment of infectious diseases, Creative Diagnostics can test these compounds in vitro to determine their potential efficacy in vivo models.
Reference:
- Alexander Klimov, et al. Influenza Virus Titration, Antigenic Characterization, and Serological Methods for Antibody Detection. Methods in molecular biology. 2012, 865:25-51.
