I need to calculate the concentration of viral antigens or viral load in a given amount of mucus in an adult experimentally infected with RSV. The only comparable test I have come across in the literature is nasal wash sampling. I figured that I could calculate the concentration of the virus in the nose based on how much saline or wash liquid was used in the sampling measure.
Hi Nile,
One thing to be careful about when quantifying protein in nasal fluid (as well as saliva) is that stimulation to collect fluid can alter protein concentration. Proteins, and presumably the RSV, will be much more concentrated at resting state, and the volume of fluid produced across donors can vary significantly. One was way around this is to use a simple Bradford or BCA assay to measure total protein in the samples, and then to normalize RSV antigen/total protein rather than something like antigen/ml nasal fluid.
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