Rapid and Real-time Detection of Human Viral Infections: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

The development of technologies with rapid and sensitive detection capabilities and increased throughput have become crucial for responding to greater number of threats posed by emerging and re-emerging viruses in the recent past. The conventional identification methods require time-consuming culturing, and/or detection of antibodies, which are not very sensitive and specific. The recent advances in molecular biology techniques in the field of genomics and proteomics greatly facilitate the rapid identification with more accuracy. The real-time assays viz; SYBR green I based real time RT-PCR and RT-LAMP have been developed for rapid detection as well as typing of some of the emerging arboviruses of biomedical importance viz; Dengue, Japanese Encephalitis, Chikungunya, West Nile, SARS and Swine Flu etc. Both these techniques are capable of detection and differentiation as well as quantifying viral load with higher sensitivity, rapidity and specificity. One of the most important advantages of RT-LAMP is its field applicability, without requirement of any sophisticated equipments. The establishment of these real time molecular assays will certainly facilitate the rapid detection of viruses with high degree of precision and accuracy in future.