A short-term plaque assay for antiviral drug research on herpes simplex virus type 2.

In antiviral drug research, gelatinized growth medium cannot be used after infection to avoid the development of secondary plaques, because agar or other chemicals may interfere with the assessment of cytotoxic activity of antiviral compounds. In this study we evaluated quantitatively the different expression of cytopathic effects of Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2) in Vero cell cultures utilizing different periods of incubation after infection, and analysed the incidence of viral progeny particles on the formation of satellite plaques in order to define a short-term plaque assay utilizing a single cycle of infection. The results shown in the work suggest using a period of 24 hours of incubation post adsorption for a screening on inhibition of HSV-2 infectivity in antiviral drug studies.