Newly-developed technology can directly detect Ebola virus

Ebola virus is such a deadly disease that found in 1976 in Africa. It is an unusual disease and after being discovered, it caused widespread concern and attention within the medical profession. Since 2014, Ebola virus in West Africa has killed over 11,000 people. Recently there are new cases found in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

A group form researchers at UC Santa Cruz has developed chip-based technology for reliable detection of Ebola virus and other viral pathogens. The system used recombinant rat proteins and can be integrated into a simple, portable device to quickly detect Ebola infections and control outbreaks since it uses direct optical detection of vital molecules. Tests have been done and the results show that the system has the sensitivity and specificity needed to provide a viable clinical assay. The results paper was published September 25 in Nature Scientific Reports.

The current Ebola virus detection relies on a method called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the virus's genetic material for detection. Because PCR works on DNA molecules and Ebola is an RNA virus, the reverse transcriptase enzyme is used to make DNA copies of the viral RNA prior to PCR amplification and detection. This PCR detection seems to be more complex compared with the new-developed system, and it requires a laboratory setting. The system would detect the nucleic acids directly and achieve a comparable limit of detection to PCR and excellent specificity.

The system combines two small chips, one microfluidic chip for sample preparation and one optofluidic chip for optical detection. Senior author Holger Schmidt, the Kapany Professor of Optoelectronics at UC Santa Cruz and his collaborators have been developing optofluidic chip technology for optical analysis of single molecules as they pass through a tiny fluid-filled channel on the chip for the last ten years. The microfluidic chip for sample processing can be integrated as a second layer next to or on top of the optofluidic chip.

Although the team has not yet able to test the system starting with raw blood samples due to lack of additional sample preparation steps, it is a great step in the process. The scientists are devoting to make the system to detect less dangerous pathogens and do more useful analysis for other diseases. Flarebio provides recombinant proteins of good quality such as recombinant Cdh4.