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Antiserum inhibition of propagating viruses
Author(s) -
Lee Yih,
Eisner Symma D.,
Yin John
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0290(19970805)55:3<542::aid-bit11>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - antiserum , virology , biology , diffusion , neutralization , virus , microbiology and biotechnology , biophysics , physics , antigen , immunology , thermodynamics
The design and implementation of controlled environments to continuously culture and evolve viruses provides a means to track how their populations respond to natural and designed anti‐viral agents. We have previously demonstrated how the growth of viruses in spreading plaques enables detection and characterization of their evolutionary dynamics. Using plaques of phage T7 growing on E. coli as a model system, we observe here that velocities of propagation can be readily controlled by the level of anti‐viral antiserum incorporated into the propagation medium. Further, we develop a simple analytic expression for the radial velocity of propagation in terms of the microscopic rates of viral amplification, Fickian diffusion of the virions and their neutralization by antiserum. Our analysis captures the essential dependence of propagation velocity on antiserum concentration. This study provides an ex vivo foundation for exploring how medically relevant viruses escape suppression by the immune system. © 1997 John Wiley & Son, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 55 : 542–546, 1997.