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For years doctors have used stethoscopes
to hear the heart beating, but one day they may be able to
listen for sounds of viral
infections.
The listening technology is rapid and
accurate and should be relatively cheap to develop.
The researchers based their detection
method on quartz crystals. These crystals vibrate when exposed
to an electric field. As the electric field strengthens, the
vibrations increase. The vibrations grow even stronger when
an additional mass is attached to the crystals.
Researchers coated quartz crystals with
an antibody that attracts a type of herpes virus. Once viruses
attached to the quartz, the researchers increased the intensity
of the electric field. The goal of the intensification was
to trigger the virus to break free from the quartz.
Using the quartz as a miniature microphone,
the researchers were able to hear the sounds
produced as viruses broke away from the quartz.
In fact, they were able to tell from the sound how
many viruses were present. The technique, known
as rupture event scanning, was so sensitive that it could
tell whether only a single virus was present.
The study shows it
is possible to directly, sensitively and quantitatively detect
a human virus, herpes simplex virus, using rupture
event scanning.
The researchers are in the process of
simplifying their virus detector to make it a portable technology.
The researchers predict that the listening technique eventually
may be used to provide instant diagnosis in the clinic.
Quartz-based listening technology seems
to be "a useful addition" to existing detection
techniques, since it appears to be both accurate and fast.
Quartz technology has been mass-produced
cheaply for years, so developing the listening technology
should be feasible.
Such a development could be of great
benefit to areas where sensitive techniques to diagnose viral
infections are currently unavailable.
Nature
Biotechnology September 2001;19:823-824, 833-837
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