A new test will determine the history of a person's disease by one drop of blood
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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A group of scientists from Harvard has developed a universal method that will help to disclose the history of infection of a person with viral infections throughout his life, while for a complete diagnosis only one drop of blood is required. The cost of such testing will be around 25 dollars.
The test system is called VirScan. One of the bioengineers at Harvard University, Stephen Elledge, said the virus detector will only allow one drop of blood to know the entire history of a person's illness, from an early age. The technology developed is unique. To date, doctors can not only diagnose the disease with the help of an examination, in most cases this requires a number of additional diagnostic procedures, which can sometimes take quite a long time, but even diagnosis can not always show the type of viral infection.
The new technology VirScan will allow doctors to find out the possible cause of the disease in a few days, while it will be possible to identify hidden infections that occur without a clear symptomatology.
The invention of Harvard bioengineers consists of a set of dangling bonds of protein molecules that are part of the envelope of a variety of viruses and the immune system easily recognizes them. Such fragments of the viral envelope were obtained by specialists in an unusual way. In their work, bioengineers used a virus that infects bacteria, in the DNA of which more than 90 fragments with a code of viral protein membranes were introduced. In other words, VirScan includes thousands of variations of one virus.
The human immune system remembers all the viruses that one has to face, antibodies remain in the blood that "remember" the type of virus and the protein membrane. With repeated infection, the antibodies are attached to viruses, the shell of which is "remembered", thereby making them noticeable for cells that must destroy foreign microorganisms. The principle of VirScan's action is based on the immune system's response to recognize viruses - when a test is connected to human blood, a reaction begins, which results in antibodies linked to familiar shells, after the reaction, experts select from the sample "tagged" viruses, recognize DNA and establish the type of infection.
The human body produces antibodies even 40 years after the first infection, which allows virologists to determine with the help of a new test all the infections that "the immune system has memorized. The VirScan system takes about 2-3 days to test. According to the developers, the new system can detect not only light 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 nearly 600 volunteers tested the performance of the test system. As a result of the tests, scientists were able to recognize 95% of viruses.
Also, specialists were able to establish that an average adult suffers about 10 viral infections.
In addition, virologists have discovered interesting relationships between viruses and antibodies that can help in developing methods for fighting various diseases.
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