PRNT

Overview

The Plaque Reduction Neutralisation Test (PRNT) is the reference standard serological assay for measuring dengue-specific neutralising antibodies. Serum is incubated with a known quantity of live virus; the mixture is then applied to susceptible cell monolayers (typically BHK21 or Vero cells). The degree of plaque reduction relative to a virus-only control indicates the neutralising antibody titre. The PRNT50 threshold (≥50% plaque reduction) is standard for seropositivity. PRNT can distinguish serotype-specific immunity when applied to all four DENV serotypes, enabling reconstruction of a patient’s prior infection sequence.

Key Points from Literature

• Used in Garcia2009 - Long-term Clinical Symptoms Post-Dengue to determine immune status across all four dengue serotypes in a symptomatic subset (n = 26), performed on BHK21 cells at a single serum dilution (1/30). This allowed reconstruction of prior infection sequences (e.g. DENV-1→2→3→4) in the 2006 Cuban cohort.
• Used in Sungnak2025 - Distinct Immune Responses Asymptomatic Symptomatic Dengue for primary/secondary infection classification in the DENFREE Thailand cohort, alongside hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Both methods were applied to asymptomatic and symptomatic dengue donors to stratify the cohort for matched scRNA-seq comparisons.

Contradictions & Debates

None yet recorded.

Related Pages

• ELISA Inhibition Method
• DENV-4

Sources

• Garcia2009 - Long-term Clinical Symptoms Post-Dengue
• Sungnak2025 - Distinct Immune Responses Asymptomatic Symptomatic Dengue (primary/secondary classification in Thailand cohort)