DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHLY SENSITIVE ELECTROCHEMICAL SENSING PROBES FOR RAPID DETECTION AND TYPING OF ENTEROVIRUSES

Intro: Foot hand mouth disease, which is caused by enteroviruses infection, is an epidemic disease in young children in East Asia. In general, it is a mild disease but lacks specific therapeutic drugs or effective treatment. Moreover, patients who are infected by enterovirus 71 (EVA71), and may cause serious complications and even death. Conventional detection and genome sequencing approaches are time consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, rapid virus detection, virus typing, and vaccine design are highly desired. Methods: In this study, we have developed a rapid and specific electrochemical based bio-sensing probe to identify and distinguish the genotype of the enterovirus strain. Findings: The EVA71 virus can be detected within 15 min and the limit of detection is about a single molecule level per test. Moreover, gene types of EVA71 B5 and C4a can be identified rapidly, within 30 min. Our result also demonstrated that Coxsackievirus 16 can be distinguished from EVA71 with a similar approach. The sensitivity of the detection level is 4.1 pM. Conclusion: This research may provide important information for physicians to make a proper decisions for severe cases. At the same time, our detection system may help the public health system to monitor the status of enterovirus epidemics and implement a timely control strategy.