5 techniques used to reveal virus secrets

The virus often saysInvisible enemy“They are invisible to the naked eye and not visible using standard light microscopy. So how do you know how they exist or what they look like?”

There is Biochemical method, Those used to confirm COVID-19 infection, Virus.. However, there are several different methods used to “see” in the lab. Virus..

To understand these methods, you first need to understand what a small virus really is. Most of our cells are about 100 micrometers (0.1 millimeters) in diameter. Viruses average about 150 nanometers (0.00015 millimeters), about a thousandth of this.

Optical microscope

The cells are clearly visible using a standard light microscope. However, these microscopes Limited by the light itself Viruses are much smaller than this because they can’t display anything less than half the wavelength of visible light.

However, you can use a microscope to see the damage the virus does to our cells. this”Cytopathic effect“And by comparing infected and uninfected cells, we can detect the presence of the virus in the sample.

Preliminary work on SARS-CoV-2 (virus that causes COVID-19) using: Optical microscope Revealed The ability of a virus to fuse infected cells to form syncytia (large cells with multiple nuclei). This is an effect previously observed with some other respiratory viruses.

Immunofluorescence

An indirect way to visualize the virus is to use antibodies to tag the virus with a fluorescent molecule that emits light when it absorbs certain types of radiation (which the body makes in response to an infection. Same as the one). You can also tag multiple items (such as virus and cell components) with different colors to track multiple at the same time.

Next, you can detect the fluorescence from the tag to see where the virus goes inside the cell and what kind of cell structure it has. Be involved.. This allows you to investigate things like How Drugs Affect Virus Replication Or How different strains of viruses behave differently..

Super resolution microscope

With recent advances in fluorescence microscopy, Super resolution microscopeIt combines very sophisticated physics and computational techniques to produce sharp images that reveal very detailed structures within cells.

This technique for virology can be used to more accurately identify areas of infected cells. For example, you can see exactly where Cell virus There is, And certain parts of cell machinery viruses Used for duplication..

Electron microscopy

None of the techniques mentioned so far can be directly visualized Virus particles.. Electron microscopes are there because they can produce images on the nanometer scale. This is done by firing electrons on the sample and seeing how the electrons interact with it. The computer interprets this information to produce an image.

This allows you to visually investigate different stages of virus infection Intracellular.. You can also use an electron microscope to visualize the entire viral particle, as shown in the image above. From these images, a 3D structure of the entire viral particle can be formed by computationally assembling images of thousands of particles taken in different directions, as in this example. 3D EM rendering of SARS-CoV-2..

Electronic Microscopy Used for SARS-CoV-2 decide A method by which a virus interacts with and infects cells using an outer “spike” protein. Such studies are very useful in elucidating how viruses access our cells.

Assessing the outer structure of viral particles is also an excellent tool for identifying which antibody Can neutralize the virus, Helps to produce a more accurate and effective vaccine.

Crystallography

Crystallography You can view the structure in more detail at the atomic level. To do this, you need a sample of truly debris-free virus suspended in solution. When the suspension liquid evaporates, the remaining solids (including viruses) crystallize. These are uniformly aligned to form crystals and exposed to X-rays.

The detector records the way x-rays diffract (or “bounce”) from the crystallized sample, indicating the position of electrons within the sample Construction.. You can use this information to build an atomic scale. 3D structure of the sample..

the same as Electron microscopy, Crystallography can be used to determine the structure of viruses such as spike proteins SARS-CoV-2.. Understand these structures, and in particular how they interact with us cell And antibodies signal vaccines and drug design.

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