Tropical diseases have become a problem in the last years, not only in tropical countries but also around the world. Recently, it was discovery that Zika virus is responsible for microcephaly in fetus, increasing worries about this disease.<br/>Zika virus detection is based on its RNA by polymer chain reaction (PCR), which can be expensive and laborious. The utilization of gold nanoparticles appears as an alternative, once surface plasmons are susceptive to dielectric changes. Methods to isolate antibody or antigen have already been developed, and both biomolecules can be used to modify metallic surfaces and used as probes. Considering gold nanoparticles and gold nanometric films as alternatives to detect Zika virus, we modified gold nanoparticles with Zika virus antibody and we utilized two different strategies to observe Zika antibody-NS1 protein interaction. In the first case, to two different gold nanoparticles suspensions modified with Zika virus antibody ([AB]= 0.01µg/mL) were added bovine serum albumin (BSA) ([BSA]= 0.01 µg/mL) and Zika virus NS1 protein ([NS1] 0.01µg/mL) as can be seen in the Figure 1A. This approach allowed the detection of the antibody-NS1 interaction by plasmonic coupling among nanoparticles, while BSA (a common protein in blood and potential interferent) does not present same behavior. In the second case, NS1 protein was utilized to modify SPR gold film, and the gold nanoparticles with antibody were interacted with this film as well antibody without any modification. The interaction NS1 protein-antibody is observed by angle shifting seen by SPRS, as shown in Figure 1B. SPRS measures indicate that binding of AB to AuNps surface decreases around 15 % of AB-NS1 interaction. These factors indicate that gold nanoparticles can be used to detect Zika virus NS1 protein and suggest a possibility to use these methods as alternatives to detect Zika virus.

Surface plasmons to Zika virus detection: Detection of NS1 protein utilizing localized surface plasmon resonance and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy

255th National Meeting (2018)

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