Image credit: PixabayHow would you like the ability to tell if the person seated next to you on the train or standing in line beside you at Starbucks has the flu? Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are steps closer to achieving this ability with a new study.

Researchers have found a way to make influenza ‘visible to the naked eye’ by engineering dye molecules to target a specific enzyme of the virus that emits fluorescent light when illuminated. Using test samples mirroring those of an infected patient and spiking them with an enzyme called neuraminidase (purified from the flu virus), infected samples would return red fluorescent light and negative influenza results would return blue fluorescent light.

Taking this process a step further, scientists were also able to determine which of two approved antiviral drugs would best treat a particular patient.

Although only at the prototype stage, scientists believe that this testing could later be used at home for rapid and easy influenza detection.

“Viral cultures are the gold standard for diagnosis of influenza but take several days to develop. By targeting an enzyme inherent to the virus and identifying its presence in a sample, we can make a rapid determination of the influenza in a patient for an efficient and immediate diagnostic that would improve patient treatment and reduce overuse of antivirals,” said Bradley Smith, Emil T. Hofman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, director of the Notre Dame Integrated Imaging Facility and co-author of the study.

The research appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.