Serial passage
You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.
Serial passage is a virus attenuation technique developed originally by Louis Pasteur in the 1880's. It is similar to selective breeding, and can be used to create an attenuated strain of a virus to develop vaccines, or to increase the virulence of a viral strain in order to create epidemics.
The process involves infecting a series of host organisms with a virus. Each time the virus is given some time to incubate, and then the next host is infected with the incubated virus. The virus may mutate repeatedly into a form that is resistant to a wide variety of host immune system defenses, or a weaker strain may result.
Pasteur produced an early rabies vaccine by using serial passage to transmit the virus until an attenuated developed which could be used to stimulate an immune response without causing a pathological infection.
Scientists have observed that non-virulent forms of HIV can give rise to virulent strains after serial passage occurs in primates.
Serial passage is also used in antimicrobial testing to determine how quickly an organism can acquire resistance to an antibiotic.
External links
- Brief mention of Pasteur's work with rabies serial passage
- abstract of report about serial passage in baboons giving rise to a virulent strain
Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content
Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
