The best-known methods to treat viral diseases is through early intervention, which demands sensitive and cost-effective viral detection methods. Current virus detection methods, such as polymerase chain reactions (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) require expensive equipment and highly trained personnel. These detection techniques also require expensive reagents such as capture antibodies or complementary oligonucleotides that are specific to the virus of interest. To avoid using expensive and time-consuming techniques for virus detection, we are developing a simple, non-specific virus assay using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and osmolytes.<br/>It has been shown in the literature that protein forms a corona around AuNPs in solution through electrostatic interactions. Our lab is using this interaction between biomolecules and AuNPs to form virus particle/AuNP complexes. The complexes are then placed in osmolytes. Osmolytes have been shown to preferentially aggregate enveloped and non-enveloped viruses while leaving proteins unfazed in solution. This action by osmolytes can be used to preferentially aggregate virus/AuNP complexes as compared to potential contaminating protein/AuNP complexes in our assay. The aggregation is measured by either a shift in the UV-Vis light absorption or by size measurements with dynamic light scattering (DLS).<br/>This osmolyte-induced virus assay was developed using the non-enveloped porcine parvovirus (PPV) and the enveloped bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). The viruses bound to the 15 nm diameter AuNPs through electrostatic interactions, forming a complex that can be measured with UV-Vis and DLS. Results have shown that both viruses can be detected using DLS by comparing the hydrodynamic diameter of the virus/AuNP complexes before and after mannitol-induced aggregation at a limit of detection of ~10<sup>5</sup> particles/ml. The current optimization strategy is to vary the size ratio between the virus particles and AuNPs to find an optimal ratio for binding between the two particles, leading to an increased DLS signal. An optimized AuNP assay will be used in confirming the presence of virus in a sample such as a saliva matrix or a blood donation sample.

Virus detection via osmolyte-induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles

2019 Spring National Meeting

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