*2.6. Cytotoxicity Assay*

Necrotic cell damage was evaluated measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release resulting from a plasma membrane rupture. The supernatant of infected cells was recovered and subjected to a cytotoxicity assay, performed using the CytoTox 96 ®non-radioactive cytotoxicity assay (Promega, Madison, USA) according to manufacturer's instructions. Absorbance of converted dye was measured at 490 nm using a microplate reader (Tecan, Grödig, Austria).
