A Rutgers-led team has developed a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-enabled, gold nanoparticle-based probe to monitor influenza A virus mutations in real time, which could help virologists learn how to stop viruses from replicating.
"Our probe will provide important insight on the cellular features that lead a cell to produce abnormally high numbers of viral offspring and on possible conditions that favor stopping viral replication," said Laura Fabris, senior author of the study published recently in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.
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The new tool will allow virologists to study the behavior of influenza A, as well as any other RNA viruses, in host cells and to identify the external conditions or cell properties affecting them. Until now, studying mutations in cells has required destroying them to extract their contents. It also enables analysis without killing cells, allowing researchers to get snapshots of viral replication as it occurs. Next steps include studying multiple segments of viral RNA and monitoring the influenza A virus in animals.