An improved respiratory syncytial virus neutralization assay based on the detection of green fluorescent protein expression and automated plaque counting

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Virus neutralizing antibodies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are considered important correlates of protection for vaccine evaluation. The established plaque reduction assay is time consuming, labor intensive and highly variable.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here, a neutralization assay based on a modified RSV strain expressing the green fluorescent protein in combination with automated detection and quantification of plaques is described.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The fluorescence plaque reduction assay in microplate format requires only two days to complete and is simple and reproducible. A good correlation between visual and automated counting methods to determine RSV neutralizing serum antibody titers was observed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The developed virus neutralization assay is suitable for high-throughput testing and can be used for both animal studies and (large scale) vaccine clinical trials.</p