Researchers create test to detect every virus that infects people, animals

Virus detection is a field in need of constant development, and the discovery announced by a team of Washington University researchers in St. Louis has huge breakthrough potential.

Because there are thousands of viruses that make people and animals sick, diagnosing which one is at play in a given illness can be hard and require numerous tests.

“It can efficiently detect viruses that are present at very low levels”.

As stated by Dr. Gregory Storch, a professor of pediatrics, they believe that this will be an essential tool to be used when standardized tests will either fail or the medical health professionals involved will be stumped by an infection. “We think the test will be especially useful in situations where a diagnosis remains elusive after standard testing or in situations in which the cause of a disease outbreak is unknown”.

The researchers who formulated ViroCap reported their findings in the September issue of Genome Research, showing that the new test has a 52 percent improvement over standard PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests that are now used in clinical laboratories. The results showed that in patient samples the test called as ViroCap can detect viruses not found by standard testing based on genome sequencing.

ViroCap could also be used in order to detect a few mortal viruses, such as Ebola, Marburg, viruses that cause severe respiratory problems and gastrointestinal infections. A new super test was manufactured that can identify almost any virus found in humans or animals.

The ViroCap, however, can achieve accurate testing for all viruses and their strains in just one test. The trials have revealed that it’s also more sensitive and can catch all the variants even better. Many tests are limited to detecting only those viruses suspected of being responsible for a patient’s illness. In the standard test, at least 11 viruses were found. However, the new test discovered 7 more. The new test found viruses in the four children that the other test missed, including influenza B, parechovirus, herpes virus 1 and varicella-zoster virus.

The new test also enables subtypes of viruses to be identified easily, because it includes detailed genetic information about various strains of particular viruses.

Viruses that occur in and on the human body are collectively known as the virome. The matched viral material is then analyzed using high-throughput genetic sequencing. In all, the research team included 2 million unique stretches of genetic material from viruses in the test. These stretches of material are used as probes to pluck out viruses in patient samples that are a genetic match. However, it will still be a few years before this test finds its way into your doctor’s toolkit.

Researchers said they plan to continue to refine the refine the test and validate its accuracy well beyond the small trials they conducted.