Virus isolation, Method & isolation in cell culture

Virus isolation:

Advantages:

 It allows for further studies on the virus isolate

 It is required for preparation of vaccines

 It is required for preparation of antigens for rapid diagnostic kits

 It is highly sensitive and reliable

Disadvantages:

 It is slow and time consuming

 It is labour intensive

 It is expensive to acquire and maintain required facilities

 Some viruses may not grow

 Selection of appropriate media may require critical consideration

Methods of virus isolation

1. Virus isolation in cell culture

2. Virus isolation in embryonated egg

3. Virus isolation in laboratory animals

4. Virus isolation in susceptible host

5. Virus isolation in arthropods

Virus isolation in cell culture

 This is the most commonly used method of virus isolation.

 It involves inoculation of sample onto confluent tissue culture monolayer.

 The inoculated tissue culture monolayer is incubated at 35-37 OC.

46

 The culture is examined daily for evidence of virus growth (cytopathic effect, interferon,

haemadsorption and antigen detection).

 Virus is harvested from the culture by freeze-thawing and low-speed centrifugation

 The supernatant is used as antigen for virus identification

 The effect of the growing virus in cell culture can be detected by light microscopy