Emerging Technologies for the Detection of Viral Infections

Abstract

Viruses represent one of the major environmental agents that cause human illness and disease. Viral detection and the study of their clinical impact have been hampered by technical aspects including tests that require substantial time and sophisticated laboratories for analysis, the small scope of target viruses interrogated, and/or the relatively low quality binary information produced. Here, we describe several emerging technologies that provide rapid and/or high-quality viral detection information. Two technologies, CRISPR-based diagnostics and a portable DNA sequencing instrument, are uniquely suited to increase the number of viral agents analyzed, even potentially in sites with limited facilities. We also discuss VirScan, a phage-based method for generating comprehensive viral profiles of previous exposure/infection and luciferase immunoprecipitation systems, a fluid-phase immunoassay that yields highly quantitative viral antibody analyses. Future applications of these approaches will accelerate on-site clinical diagnosis of viral infections and further unravel the role viruses play in complex diseases.

Keywords: :

• point of care viral diagnostics
• viral antibody profiling
• viral diseases

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Two authors of the authors (P.D.B.) and (M.J.I.) have patents related to the LIPS technology for detecting antibodies. A.C. has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.