Applications of gold nanoparticles in virus detection

Draz, Mohamed Shehata; Shafiee, Hadi

The first studies on virus isolation and detection were started early in the 1950s when the first cell culture system and electron microscope were developed [25, 26] . For decades, these techniques represented the main tools for studying and investigating the biochemical and morphological properties of viruses that remain the main foundation of all known classification and detection systems. However, their practical use in virus detection has remained greatly debated due to several considerations, including laboratory equipment expenses and time and safety concerns [27, 28] . In the early 1980s, the field of diagnostic virology was boosted with two other major developments: 1) the birth of various immunoassays; and 2) the invention of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This was followed by the development of a very wide range of serological and molecular detection techniques, which rapidly evolved to constitute the mainstream approaches of both laboratory research and the clinical diagnosis of viruses ( Fig. 1) [24, 29] .