Diagnostic tests that rapidly detect disease-causing viruses in horses, other animals and humans are being developed by scientists with the US Department of Agriculture using a new technology called “surface-enhanced Raman scattering,” or SERS.
Quick test results for viruses in horses
SERS technology will allow veterinarians to field test horses for disease causing viruses and get immediate results.
Researchers have already used this technology to identify the viruses that cause West Nile fever and Rift Valley fever spread by infected mosquitoes.
Since molecules give off their own unique signals or wave lengths that can be detected with a spectroscope the development of SERS will enable veterinarians to take blood samples from horses on farms, and read them with a hand-held device to determine if a virus is present.
Using the SERS technology, viral molecules are labeled with a dye that makes them detectable when a laser is shone on them. Moving a metal such as gold or silver close to the labeled molecules enhances the detection signal making it easier to read.
Microbiologist William Wilson, with the Agricultural Research Service Center for Grain and Animal Health Research in Manhattan, Kansas, has used this technology to identify viruses that can cause West Nile fever and Rift Valley fever, both of which are spread by infected mosquitoes.
Wilson and his collaborators at the University of Wyoming designed a nucleic acid diagnostic assay to bring molecules close to gold nanoparticles in solution. The gold nanoparticles boost the spectroscopic signal from the indicator molecule, making it easier to detect viral nucleic acid from infected cells. They also developed an immunoassay that rapidly detects antibody responses to viruses.
Scientists are hoping to eventually adapt the assay to field-based diagnostic tools that are portable and can easily be used to test horses for viruses where they are located and have immediate results available so treatment can begin promptly.