A fast and reliable microplate reader assay to assess the antiviral efficacy of cold plasma devices

Abstract

Spurred by global COVID‐19, work in recent years has demonstrated that various devices based on technology generating cold plasma are capable of reducing the infectivity of virus particles. There is great potential in this approach, which is, however, hampered by the ability of most cold plasma science laboratories to test for antiviral effects of their individual plasma sources in sophisticated mammalian cell test systems. To this end, we developed a quick, simple, and fast assay system based on bacteriophages and their ability to lyse bacterial hosts, which can be monitored in readily available microplate readers. We successfully demonstrated the principal ability of this approach using two types of plasma jets, different microplate readers, and two different bacteriophage strains.