Suitability of new chlamydia transport medium for transport of herpes simplex virus

Abstract

A new chlamydia transport medium (ChlamydiaPort; Scott Laboratories, Inc., Fiskeville, R.I.) was evaluated for its suitability as a transport medium for herpes simplex virus (HSV). Two laboratory HSV strains (McIntyre and 333) and two clinical isolates (AO218 and A0301) were suspended in ChlamydiaPort, ViraPort (Scott Laboratories), and cell culture medium and maintained at 2 and 22°C. Samples were tested at various time intervals to determine surviving virus. The range of half-lives of the HSV strains held at 2°C in ChlamydiaPort medium was from 3.5 to 10 days, while virus stability was greater in ViraPort and less in cell culture medium. These HSV strains held at 22°C in ChlamydiaPort had half-lives from 1.5 to 6 days, which were significantly greater than the half-lives of the viruses held in either tissue culture medium or ViraPort. Clinical specimens were tested for virus by using the Selecticult-HSV (Scott Laboratories) system to determine the performance of the transport medium under field conditions. Clinical specimens maintained up to 5 days at ambient temperatures in ChlamydiaPort medium appeared suitable for diagnostic testing without detectable loss of positive specimens. In addition, there was a significant decrease in the average time required for diagnosis when compared with a standard transport system, Virocult (Microdiagnostics, Cleveland, Ohio). These results show that HSV infections can be successfully diagnosed in distant virology laboratories by shipping specimens in ChlamydiaPort transport medium at ambient temperatures.

Transport of viral specimens.

“…Cell culture medium. Specimens containing HSV held in either a cell culture medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum or a buffered sucrose-based medium have been tested for survival of the virus (7). The cell culture medium was much less effective in maintaining virus activity.…”

“…Thus, it is believed that sodium salts should be avoided in transport media used for both chlamydial and viral agents. Media of similar composition identified as ChlamydiaPort or Richards Viral Transport (Richards Laboratories, Inc., Pleasant Grove, Utah) were evaluated for suitability as a transport medium for HSV (7). The survival of two laboratory strains and two clinical isolates at 2 and 220C was tested in both cell culture medium and the sucrose-containing transport medium.…”

Performance evaluation of Puritan® universal transport system (UniTranz-RT™) for preservation and transport of clinical viruses

“…VZV foci counts were stable up to 48 hr and they showed a small decline at 72 hr of incubation under the experimental conditions. Recovery of HSV-1 and HSV-2 from Leibovitz charcoal viral transport medium and modified Leibovitz-Emory medium, incubated at ambient temperature revealed inactivation of both viruses within 2 hr and no virus recovery after 1 day of incubation at ambient temperature [Nahmias et al, 1971], suggesting the importance of transport media on virus recovery and storage temperature [Barnard et al, 1986;Jensen and Johnson, 1994]. Relatively poor stability of HSV-2 isolates over HSV-1 in both UniTranz-RT TM and UVT observed by us is similar to the observations reported by others [Jensen and Johnson, 1994].…”

From cold chain to ambient temperature: transport of viral specimens- a review

“…Transport media for chlamydia (ChlamydiaPort, Scott Laboratories) was evaluated as a viral transport medium for the HSV. It was compared with ViraPort (Scott Laboratories) and cell culture medium [ 34 ] for the stability of HSV type 1 (strain McIntyre) and HSV type 2 (strain 333) and clinical isolates (HSV type 1 strain A0218 and HSV type 2 strain A0301). The viruses were diluted 1:10 in all ChlamydiaPort and ViraPort and held at 22 °C and 2 °C.…”

“…ViraPort could stabilise strain AO218 better ChlamydiaPort at 22 °C. Clinical samples were stable for 5 days in the ChlamydiaPort than Virocult transport system [ 34 ].…”