Structurally designed ‘DNA star’ creates ultrasensitive test for dengue virus

By folding snippets of DNA into the shape of a five-pointed star using structural DNA nanotechnology, researchers have created a trap that captures dengue virus as it floats in the bloodstream. Once sprung, the trap – which is nontoxic and is naturally cleared from the body – lights up. It’s the most sensitive test yet for the mosquito-borne diseases. Published in the journal Nature Chemistry, this detection technique could be expanded to other viruses and adapted to kill the viruses it snares. “This is more sensitive than any other way of detecting dengue, beating the clinical test by more than 100 fold,” said Xing Wang, a University of Illinois chemistry professor and the corresponding author of the study. “The binding is tight and the specificity is high, enabling us to distinguish the presence of dengue on the first day of infection.” Wang was a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the time...