Researchers at the University of Georgia, United States, have developed a new detection method for influenza that uses gold nanoparticles to diagnose flu in minutes. Prior to this development, physicians and public health officials had to choose between a highly accurate but time-consuming test or a rapid, but error-prone test. Now they can have the best of both worlds. The research team’s method uses gold nanoparticles coated with antibodies that bind to specific strains of the flu virus, and measures how the particles scatter laser light. The technology can detect influenza in minutes at a cost of less than a penny per exam. According to Ralph Tripp, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Vaccine Development in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, “We’ve known for a long time that you can use antibodies to capture viruses and that nanoparticles have different traits based on their size. What we’ve done is combine the two to create a diagnostic test that is rapid and highly sensitive.” The team hopes that their test will enable more timely diagnoses that can help halt the spread of flu by accurately identifying infections, which will allow physicians to begin treatment early when antiviral drugs are most effective. Tripp adds, “This test offers tremendous advantages for influenza, but we really don’t want to stop there. Theoretically, all we have to do is exchange our anti-influenza antibody out with an antibody for another pathogen that may be of interest, and we can do the same test for any number of infectious agents.”