The development of safe antimicrobial agents is important for the effective treatment of pathogens. From a multitude of discovered inhibitory compounds, only a few antimicrobial agents are able to enter the market. Many antimicrobials are, on the one hand, quite effective in killing pathogens but, on the other hand, cytotoxic to eukaryotic cells. Cell health can be monitored by various methods. Plasma membrane integrity, DNA synthesis, enzyme activity, and reducing conditions within the cell are known indicators of cell viability and cell death. For a comprehensive overview, methods to analyze cytotoxic and hemolytic effects, e.g., lactate dehydrogenase release, cell proliferation analysis, cell viability analysis based on the activity of different intracellular enzymes, and hemolysis assay of antimicrobial compounds on human cells, are described in this updated chapter.
Keywords: Cell proliferation reagent WST-1; Cytotoxicity assay; Hemolysis assay; Lactate dehydrogenase release; Resazurin-based cell viability assay.
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