High throughput quantitative colorimetric microneutralization assay for the confirmation and differentiation of West Nile Virus and St. Louis encephalitis virus.

An automated colorimetric micro-neutralization assay (CmNt) was developed for confirmation and differentiation of West Nile Virus (WNV)-positive human sera as a higher throughput alternative to the standard six-well plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT). CmNt was performed in high-capacity 96-well micro-titer plates and required 4-6 days to complete. Inhibition of infection was determined by reduced neutral red-dye retention and conveniently recorded by a colorimetric plate reader. Human sera previously confirmed by PRNT as either negative (N = 52), WNV positive (N = 81), or St. Louis encephalitis virus positive (N = 12) were tested by CmNt; interpreted results were virtually identical to PRNT with a reduced turnaround time and higher throughput. Additionally, a handful of dengue virus positive and negative specimens (four each) were tested by CmNt; interpreted results were identical to PRNT.