My lab is working with primary cells from the patient and we would like to check if our cells are infected with HIV, HBV, HCV, etc by PCR. We would like to know how many cells do we need for this. The thing is that we don't have a lot of cells so we would like to use as little as possible.
You have to know at least two things:
1. A reliable average number of virions per infected patient cell or in vitro cell, which will likely vary per virus type
2. The analytical sensitivity/parameters of the PCR kit that you are using: If you are using a commercial kit for this purpose without modification, then you can consult the product insert/manual for this. If you are using an in-house kit or procedure, it might be in your best interest to assess its analytical sensitivity/parameters (limits of blank, detection and quantification).
Theoretically, PCR can detect a single copy in the sample of a genetic/primer target, but the biological, chemical and physical features can likely influence this in an adverse manner. For instance, a lot of the SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR kits report an analytical sensitivity of 200 gene target copies/mL or higher.
depend on the lower limit of detection (LOD) of the PCR, the viral load, and the stage ( or clinical feature) of the patient
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