Fig. 5: Concept of RGB (Red-Green-Blue) virus color mixing.

a RGB model. Color mixing is used to present the relative infectivity rates of YF17D/mCherry (R), JEV/eGFP (G) and DENV-2/mAzurite (B) in a multiplex-virus assay upon treatment. In case of unrestricted virus growth (virus control, VC), the readout of this color mixing will result in “white”, while in case of full inhibition of all three viruses, it will be “black”. b Showcase of differential compound sensitivities. The relative infectivity for the virus control (upper panel) is computed as white (100, 100, 100). In the theoretical case of a treatment that results in 100% inhibition of only the “blue” virus (lower panel), it will thus yield the complementary color “yellow” (100, 100, 0). c 3D plot. When XYZ axes are used to present the three color-coded coordinates (R, G, B), all possible readouts upon treatment can be present in a 3D cube. For example, circles—100% inhibition of only one virus each; diamonds—100% inhibition of each two viruses; black triangle—100% inhibition of all three viruses; white triangle—no inhibition of any of the three viruses. d, e Specificity and potency. Each data point in the 3D plot can be deconvoluted on a series of RGB palettes (d) to interpret mainly for the specificity, plus a white-black scale (e) as representation of potency (e) of a particular antiviral molecule under study.