Zika virus has recently emerged as a worldwide pathogen and public health burden due to its rapid spread and identification as a causative agent for multiple neurological defects, including congenital microcephaly. While there has been a flurry of recent research to address this emerging pathogen, there are currently no approved drug treatments for ZIKV infection. The gold standard for testing antiviral activity is to quantify infectious virion production. However, current infectious viral production assays, such as the plaque-forming or focus-forming unit assay, are tedious and labor intensive with a low-screening throughput. To facilitate drug development, we developed a Zika viral titration assay using an automated imaging system and an image analysis algorithm for viral colony quantification. This assay retained the principle of the classical virus titer assay, while improving workflow and offering higher screening throughput. In addition, this assay can be broadly adapted to quantification of other viruses.

中文翻译：

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快速筛选抗病毒药物的高通量Zika病毒滴度测定。

寨卡病毒由于其迅速传播和被鉴定为多种神经系统缺陷（包括先天性小头畸形）的病因，最近已成为一种全球病原体和公共卫生负担。尽管针对这一新兴病原体的最新研究进展迅速，但目前尚无批准的ZIKV感染药物治疗方法。测试抗病毒活性的金标准是定量感染性病毒粒子的生产。然而，当前的感染性病毒生产测定法，例如噬菌斑形成或焦点形成单位测定法，繁琐且劳动强度大，且筛选效率低。为了促进药物开发，我们使用自动成像系统和用于病毒菌落定量的图像分析算法开发了Zika病毒滴定测定法。该测定法保留了经典病毒滴度测定法的原理，同时改善了工作流程并提供了更高的筛选通量。另外，该测定法可以广泛地适用于其他病毒的定量。