Maximum possible virus titers

[Greg Tobin]

In article <3vr01n$8sb at news.orst.edu> Steven Poet <poets at ccmail.orst.edu> writes:
>That seems like a pretty high dilution to me.  Are you sure your decimal
>points are all in the right place?  I remember somewhere in the depths
>of my memory that 10^17 poliovirus particles will fill a ping pong ball.
>So I don't think 10^23 virus particles can be suspended in 1 ml of
>cell culture medium.  I understand the difference between TCID50 and
>absolute particle numbers, I'm just thinking intuitively.
>
>krjk1 at stirling.ac.uk (Mr K R John Kollanoor) wrote:
>>
>> Is there a theoratical maximum for the number of virus progeny a cell 
>> culture supernatant can have? 
>> Is there any possibility of a titer of 10^-23(TCID50/ml) in any of the virus 
>> infected cell culture supernatant ?
>> I would appreciate if someone could answer these questions.
>
>
>
I recall poliovirus stocks with titers around 10^10 per ml or 10^12 particles
per ml.  10^23 seems much too high.  Look at the size of a lentivirus:

120 nM (120 x 10^9 M) in diameter
8 x 10^6 particles along a one meter line
5 x 10^14 particles packed into a cubic centimeter (one ml)
5 x 10^20 particles packed into a cubic meter



-- 
Greg Tobin, Ph.D.                        tobin at lcms-1.ncifcrf.gov