New publications
New test will determine a person's medical history from a single drop of blood
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
A group of Harvard scientists has developed a universal method that will help reveal the history of a person's infection with viral infections throughout his or her life, and only one drop of blood is required for a full diagnosis. The cost of such testing will be around $25.
The test system was named VirScan. One of the bioengineers at Harvard University, Stephen Elledge, noted that the virus detector will allow one to learn the entire medical history of a person, starting from early years, using just one drop of blood. The developed technology is unique. Today, doctors cannot determine a disease only by examination; in most cases, this requires a number of additional diagnostic procedures, which can sometimes take quite a long time, but even diagnostics cannot always show the type of viral infection.
The new VirScan technology will allow doctors to determine the possible cause of a disease in a few days, and it will also be possible to identify hidden infections that occur without obvious symptoms.
The invention of Harvard bioengineers consists of a set of broken links of protein molecules that are part of the shell of various viruses and the immune system easily recognizes them. Such fragments of the viral shell were obtained by specialists using a not quite conventional method. In their work, bioengineers used a virus that infects bacteria, into whose DNA more than 90 fragments with the code of viral protein shells were introduced. In other words, VirScan includes thousands of variations of one virus.
The human immune system remembers all the viruses it has encountered, and antibodies remain in the blood that “remember” the type of virus and protein shell. When re-infected, the antibodies attach to the viruses whose shell they “remembered,” thereby making them visible to cells that must destroy foreign microorganisms. The principle of VirScan is based on the immune system’s reaction to recognize viruses - when the test is combined with human blood, a reaction begins, as a result of which antibodies bind to familiar shells, after the reaction is complete, specialists select “marked” viruses from the sample, recognize DNA, and establish the type of infection.
The human body produces antibodies even 40 years after the first infection, which allows virologists to use the new test to identify all infections that the immune system has "remembered." Testing with the VirScan system takes about 2-3 days. According to the developers, the new system can detect not only mild viral infections, but also HIV, hepatitis, and other dangerous retroviruses.
To test VirScan, a group of biologists visited South Africa, Peru and several other countries, where the test system was tested on almost 600 volunteers. As a result of the tests, the scientists were able to recognize 95% of viruses.
Experts were also able to establish that a middle-aged adult suffers approximately 10 viral infections.
In addition, virologists have uncovered interesting relationships between viruses and antibodies that could help develop methods to combat various diseases.
[