Clinical Virology Laboratory and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Clin Microbiol. 2013 Jan;51(1):2-4. doi: 10.1128/JCM.02593-12. Epub 2012 Oct 10.
Conventional tube culture systems have long been the mainstay in clinical virology for the growth and identification of viruses from clinical specimens. Innovations such as centrifugation-enhanced shell vial and multiwell plate cultures and the use of genetically engineered and mixed cell lines, coupled with faster detection of viral replication, have allowed for reasonable turnaround times for even some of the most slowly growing clinically important human viruses. However, molecular methods, in particular, the PCR, have usurped the role of viral culture in many laboratories, limiting the use of this traditional method of virus detection or replacing it altogether. Advances and improvements in molecular technology over time have also resulted in newer generations of more rapid and accurate molecular assays for the detection, quantification, and genetic characterization of viruses. For this point-counterpoint, we have asked two individuals, Richard L. Hodinka of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a clinical virologist whose laboratory has completely eliminated viral culture in favor of molecular methods, and Laurent Kaiser, head of the Virology Laboratory at the University of Geneva Hospital, who continues to be a strong advocate of viral culture, to discuss the relevance of viral culture in the molecular age.
传统的管培养系统长期以来一直是临床病毒学的主要方法，用于从临床标本中生长和鉴定病毒。离心增强的壳瓶和多孔板培养等创新，以及基因工程和混合细胞系的使用，加上病毒复制的快速检测，使得即使是一些生长最慢的重要临床人类病毒，也能有合理的周转时间。然而，分子方法，特别是 PCR，已经在许多实验室中取代了病毒培养的作用，限制了这种传统病毒检测方法的使用，或者完全取代了它。随着时间的推移，分子技术的进步和改进也导致了更快速和准确的新一代分子检测方法的出现，用于检测、定量和遗传特征分析病毒。在这一对立的观点中，我们邀请了两位人士，费城儿童医院的临床病毒学家 Richard L. Hodinka，他的实验室完全淘汰了病毒培养，转而采用分子方法，以及日内瓦大学医院病毒学实验室的负责人 Laurent Kaiser，他仍然是病毒培养的强烈支持者，来讨论在分子时代病毒培养的相关性。
