Why is it in the News?

A viral infection can stress cells and change their shapes and sizes. Researchers have built a tool to detect these changes.

About the new Tool:

• A team of researchers has developed an innovative method to detect viral infections in cells using only light and principles of high-school physics.
  • The key insight is that viral infections can stress cells, causing changes in their shapes, sizes, and other features.
  • As the infection progresses and the body becomes diseased, these changes become more pronounced.
• The researchers have found a way to translate these cellular changes into recognizable patterns that can indicate whether a cell is uninfected, virus-infected, or dead.
  • For example, virus-infected cells tend to be elongated and have clearer boundaries compared to uninfected cells.
• By analyzing the patterns of light interacting with cells, this method can non-invasively differentiate between uninfected, virus-infected, and dead cells.
• This approach has the potential to revolutionize viral disease diagnosis and monitoring, providing a simple, cost-effective, and powerful tool for detecting viral infections at the cellular level.

Significance:

• This light-based approach to detecting viral infections offers several significant advantages over the current standard methods:
• Accuracy: The new light-based technique can detect viral infections with equal or even greater accuracy compared to existing standard methods that rely on chemical reagents.
• Cost-effectiveness: The equipment required for this new method costs only around one-tenth of the $3,000 (approximately Rs 2.5 lakh) needed for the standard chemical-based approach, making it a far more affordable option, especially for resource-constrained settings.
• Rapid results: The light-based method can identify virus-infected cells in just about two hours, significantly faster than the 40 hours required by the current standard method.
  • This time efficiency can be crucial in situations where rapid detection is essential, such as during a virulent disease outbreak.
• Early detection: By enabling the early detection of viral infections at the cellular level, this new technique could prove invaluable in containing the spread of highly contagious viral diseases, such as a severe influenza outbreak.

What are Viruses?

• Viruses are microscopic organisms capable of infecting various hosts such as humans, plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi.
• Structurally, they consist of genetic material (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protective shell called a capsid, with some viruses also possessing an envelope.
• Unable to reproduce independently, viruses rely on host cells to replicate by utilizing the cell's machinery.
• Common types include influenza viruses, human herpesviruses, coronaviruses, human papillomaviruses, enteroviruses, flaviviruses, orthopoxviruses, and hepatitis viruses.
• Viruses are responsible for causing illnesses such as flu, the common cold, and COVID-19.