Poster Presentation Australasian Cytometry Society 43rd Annual Conference and Workshop

Liquid crystal droplet-based biosensor to differentiate and quantify Influenza Type A Flu and Type B (#114)

Mahboubeh Esmaeilpour 1 , Mohammadreza Gholami Shemirani 1 , Fatemeh Fotouhi Chahouki 2 , Ezzeddin Mohajerani 3 , Mohammad Mohammadi Masoudi 1 , Hosein Shahsavarani 2 4
  1. New technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
  2. Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, TEHRAN, Iran
  3. Laser and plasma research institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
  4. Cell and molecular sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Transmission of the influenza A(H5N1) and seasonal influenza viruses (Type B) among humans and animals could lead to serious emergence of novel viruses with pandemic potential.  Early diagnosis of influenza can be helpful to control the spread of the disease and help caregivers consider the appropriate treatment plan. Though their differentiation is possible by PCR based or hemagglutination inhibition testing (HIT) approaches, there are still expensive and time-consuming in addition to need specific laboratory instruments. Liquid crystal-based biosensors have recently proposed to serve as a promising system to detect various pathogens. Present study combined experimental measurements based on nematic liquid crystalline droplets in textile structure and Image processing methods to verify that it is possible to classify differentiate influenza a virus and influenza b virus. Our fabricated biosensor was effectively    capable of dissect Influenza Type A Flu and Type B in UV inactivated samples from infected laboratory cultured Vero cells. Altogether, data presented here revealed that the proposed liquid crystal biosensor provides the basis of a promising analytical simple, inexpensive, sensitive, effective, and portable device for differentiation of Type A Flu and Type B without the risk of contamination.