A rapid, low-cost quantitative diagnostic method for hepatitis C virus infection using capillary zone electrophoresis

Microscale electrokinetic-based analysis of intact cells and viruses

Miniaturized electrokinetic methods have proven to be robust platforms for the analysis and assessment of intact microorganisms, offering short response times and higher integration than their bench-scale counterparts. The present review article discusses three types of electrokinetic-based methodologies: electromigration or motion-based techniques, electrode-based electrokinetics, and insulator-based electrokinetics. The fundamentals of each type of methodology are discussed and relevant examples from recent reports are examined, to provide the reader with an overview of the state-of-the-art on the latest advancements on the analysis of intact cells and viruses with microscale electrokinetic techniques. The concluding remarks discuss the potential applications and future directions.

MS2 and Qβ bacteriophages reveal the contribution of surface hydrophobicity on the mobility of non-enveloped icosahedral viruses in SDS-based capillary zone electrophoresis

SDS is commonly employed as BGE additive in CZE analysis of non-enveloped icosahedral viruses. But the way by which SDS interacts with the surface of such viruses remains to date poorly known, making complicate to understand their behavior during a run. In this article, two related bacteriophages, MS2 and Qβ, are used as model to investigate the migration mechanism of non-enveloped icosahedral viruses in SDS-based CZE. Both phages are characterized by similar size and surface charge but significantly different surface hydrophobicity (Qβ > MS2, where '>' means 'more hydrophobic than'). By comparing their electrophoretic mobility in the presence or not of SDS on both sides of the CMC, we show that surface hydrophobicity of phages is a key factor influencing their mobility and that SDS-virus association is driven by hydrophobic interactions at the surface of virions. The CZE analyses of heated MS2 particles, which over-express hydrophobic domains at their surface, confirm this finding. The correlations between the present results and others from the literature suggest that the proposed mechanism might not be exclusive to the bacteriophages examined here.

Capillary electrophoresis based on nucleic acid detection for diagnosing human infectious disease

Rapid transmission, high morbidity, and mortality are the features of human infectious diseases caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These diseases may lead within a short period of time to great personal and property losses, especially in regions where sanitation is poor. Thus, rapid diagnoses are vital for the prevention and therapeutic intervention of human infectious diseases. Several conventional methods are often used to diagnose infectious diseases, e.g. methods based on cultures or morphology, or biochemical tests based on metabonomics. Although traditional methods are considered gold standards and are used most frequently, they are laborious, time consuming, and tedious and cannot meet the demand for rapid diagnoses. Disease diagnosis using capillary electrophoresis methods has the advantages of high efficiency, high throughput, and high speed, and coupled with the different nucleic acid detection strategies overcomes the drawbacks of traditional identification methods, precluding many types of false positive and negative results. Therefore, this review focuses on the application of capillary electrophoresis based on nucleic detection to the diagnosis of human infectious diseases, and offers an introduction to the limitations, advantages, and future developments of this approach.