Replacement of biologic by molecular techniques in diagnostic virology: Thirty years after the advent of PCR technology - Do we still need conventional methods?

摘要

About 150 years ago, Louis Pasteur discovered that transmissible diseases and epidemics are caused by microbes or even subcellular infectious agents, later on called viruses. The first methods to detect and to identify those agents were microscopy, animal experiments or voluntary self infections of scientists. Pasteur, Robert Koch and others developed a lot of methods to cultivate, to isolate and to identify bacteria in special bouillons, agar dishes, methods, which have been continuously improved and optimized up to date. In virology, a first breakthrough in the diagnostic technology of infectious diseases was the development of embryonated chicken eggs as the smallest system of animal experiments in the thirties of the last century and the advent of cell cultures in the subsequent decade.