Applications of gold nanoparticles in virus detection

Draz, Mohamed Shehata; Shafiee, Hadi

The Coronaviridae family comprises two subfamilies, Coronavirinae and Torovirinae, that were recently expanded to include many viruses. Coronavirinae are classified into four genetically distinct genera (Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus and Deltacoronavirus) [112] . Coronaviruses are enveloped RNA viruses that are pleomorphic in shape (spherical and 120-160 nm or bacilliform and 170-200 nm by 75-88 nm). They have a relatively large, positive-sense, ssRNA genome of 27-32 kb that encodes four to five structural proteins (S, the spike glycoprotein; M, the membrane glycoprotein; N, the nucleocapsid interrupt phosphoprotein; E, the envelope protein; and HE, the hemagglutinin-esterase glycoprotein) and 2 nonstructural polyprotein precursors (pp1a, polyprotein 1a; and pp1ab, polyprotein 1ab), which are later processed into several other nonstructural proteins and viral polymerase [113, 114] .