Virus sample - (Mar/23/2014 )

Hi,

If I have to detect virus from sample. Which is most suitable sample so that I can detect as many mixed infections as possible? Is blood sample (Serum/plasma) is more representative or liver? Thanks.

Are you meaning mixed infection with two or more sorts of viruses or mixed viral and bacterial infection?

Mixed viral infection. Actaully I want to know which sample is more reperesentative of any viral infection?

Can plasma or serum sample sotred at 4 ^oC for a week or two be used for virus isolation. Can Psot mortem tissue sample (week or so) be used for virus isolation?

Well, the answers to these depend on the virus and the detection methods - the most reliable method of detecting infections is to look at the antibodies raised by the host - so blood is the ideal answer here.  However if you want to detect the virus directly, the PCR or something similar is what you need to do, though I don't know of any system that will detect more than about 5-10 different viruses at once - you have the added problem that some viruses are RNA based and some DNA...

For direct detection storage is important, like it is for any experiment, so keeping the samples under ideal conditions is best.  However, the other key determinant is, once again, detection method, some are more robust than others.