title: Rapid determination of antiviral drug susceptibility of human cytomegalovirus by real-time PCR.
abstract: A quantitative real-time PCR-based assay was developed for determination of cytomegalovirus (HCMV) susceptibility to antiviral drugs. After HCMV isolate-growth for 4 days, antiviral drug susceptibility was determined by measuring the reduction of intracellular HCMV DNA in the presence of increasing concentrations of either ganciclovir, or foscarnet or cidofovir. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) was the drug concentration that reduced the number of HCMV genome copies by 50%. The IC(50) values were measured for seven HCMV reference strains sensitive or resistant to one or more antiviral drugs. The antiviral susceptibility of 21 HCMV isolates was then tested and the results were consistent with prior determination of their phenotype and/or genotype by plaque reduction assay and sequencing. The real-time PCR susceptibility assay reported here was found to be highly reproducible, simpler to perform than the plaque reduction assay, and amenable to use in the routine diagnostic virology laboratory.
authors.affiliation: AP-HP, Hôpital Lariboisière, Service de Bactériologie-Virologie, Laboratoire Associé au Centre National de Référence du cytomégalovirus, 2 rue Ambroise Paré, 75475 Paris cedex 10, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schnepf
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Boiteau
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Petit
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alain
authors.forename: Marie-José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sanson-Le Pors
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Mazeron
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000187:drug effects; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004279:DNA, Viral