Zika is often a silent disease that might not display any symptoms in infected persons, making screening particularly important. In the developing world, mobile testing systems that can be easily transported and used are not available, so sending a sample to a lab is still required to detect Zika infected individuals. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis may have come up with an effective, easy to use Zika test that can survive hot and humid environments and that can be administered by just about anyone.
It relies on embedding small squares of paper with gold nanoparticles that have a protein associated with Zika attached to them. This protein reacts with immunoglobulins that occur in patients carrying Zika. In order for the protein to survive exposure to the environment, it is safely encapsulated inside a crystal that is washed away when it meets water within a drop of blood.
Though gold is used, the amount is tiny, and so the cost of the test remains low. Before it becomes available in Zika-stricken areas of the world, it will have to undergo a trial larger than the initial one that had only four Zika-infected participants.
Study in journal Advanced Biosystems: Rapid, Point-of-Care, Paper-Based Plasmonic Biosensor for Zika Virus Diagnosis…