Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Foodborne viruses are the leading cause of foodborne illness and fourth leading cause of foodborne death in the US.Foodborne viruses are also estimated to cause billions of dollars of losses annually. There are a number of challenges to controlling these viruses, and one of them is the ability to rapidly detect them in food and environmental samples in order to take measures to prevent their spread. Often, viral contamination of foods and the environment occurs at low levels that can still get people sick, but make the viruses difficult to detect. A problem with all food and environmental detection of viruses that infect animals is the fact that a cultural enrichment stepto grow the number of viruses in the sample and increase the ease of detecting them is not as feasible as for bacterial pathogens. Therefore, the viruses need to be picked out of large, complex food and environmental samples in order to be detected--a lot like finding and capturing needles in a haystack. However, traditional methods that capture virusesare cost-prohibitive and have other limitations the reduce the ease with which they can be utilized in-field or at point-of-preparation. Magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are a highly diverse group of hydrophobic liquids that have shown promise for concentration of bacteria and other biological targets in foods; however, their ability to concentrate viruses from foods and the environment has not been studied. MILs and DESs also have the advantage of being very stable, and only require a magnetic for capture, reducing the need for heavy or electrical equipment and making portable processing of foods feasible. The goal of the proposed project is to develop and evaluate these liquids as reagents for portable, rapid concentration of viruses from foods and the environment for downstream portable detection. Further, the proposed work will attempt to anchor specific molecules that specifically target viruses to MILs and determine if this can improve the concentration of viruses from foods. This would be a new paradigm in the use of MILs for capture of biological targets if successful.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
45%
Developmental
45%
Goals / Objectives
Rapid, portable detection of foodborne viruses is essential for their control. Although a number of promising portable technologies exist for downstream detection of foodborne viruses, their utilization in-field and at point of service is limited by the need for upstream concentration and purification techniques that are often time-consuming and not portable. Magnetic liquids are a diverse class of stable hydrophobic liquids with magnetic properties that have shown promise for concentration and detection of a number of biological targets, but have not been evaluated for foodborne viruses.The overall objective of the proposed work is to evaluate the ability of magnetic liquids to capture and concentrate viruses from foods and the environment, as well as develop and evaluate ligand-modified MILs for the same purpose. The ultimate goal of the work is to develop magnetic liquid-based reagents to serve for realistic, portable concentration of foodborne viruses (and other foodborne pathogens) that enables rapid detection of viruses in foods and the environment in food production and service settings.The specific objectives of the proposed work are:Objective 1: Develop and evaluate the ability of different magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) to capture and concentrate foodborne viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A virus) from food and environmental samples prior to detection. In this objective, we will evaluate the ability of different formulations of different types of magnetic ionic liquids (MILs; Co, Ni, Dy) to capture foodborne viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A virus) from buffer and relevant food matrices (leafy greens and berries).Objective 2: Develop and evaluate the ability of different deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to capture and concentrate foodborne viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A virus) from food and environmental samples prior to detection. In this objective, we will evaluate the ability of different formulations of different types of deep eutectic solvents to capture foodborne viruses (norovirus, hepatitis A virus) from buffer and relevant food matrices (leafy greens and berries).Objective 3: Develop and evaluate the ability of ligand-modified magnetic ionic liquids (nucleic acid aptamer) to capture and concentrate noroviruses. In this objective, we will formulate the best performing MILs to be modified with norovirus-specific nucleic acid aptamers and peptides for specific capture and concentration of norovirus, as well as evaluate their potential as concentration reagents for these viruses in foods commonly implicated with foodborne virus transmission (leafy greens and berries).
Project Methods
The project will be conducted largely as proposed in the submitted narrative. On a global level, we will evaluate the performance of a different group of magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) and deep eutectic solvents (DESs) to concentrate noroviruses and hepatitis A virus from buffer, then testing the ability to concentrate viruses from more complex food matrices (lettuce and berries). Similarly, we will conduct work to create MILs with a set of specific anti-virus ligands (aptamers) for specific capture of virus from buffer and then foods.Efforts:The performance and strengths and weaknesses of the magnetic liquids for concentration of the viruses from buffers and foods will be evaluated by graduate students and undergraduate research volunteers, who will be trained on how to synthesize magnetic liquids, concentrate, and detect viruses from buffers and food samples. The results of the work will be disseminated in multiple forums both through publications, poster presentations, technical talks, as well as guest lectures for different food science undergraduate/graduatecourses (like Food Microbiology Lecture).Evaluation:The success of the project will be evaluated by number of scientific products produced, students trained, student awards received, posters presented, technical talks given, and seminars/invited talks given. Specifically, the project will be considered successful if 3 articles/reviews are published in respected scientific journals, 5 poster/technical talk presentations are given, 4 invited talks/seminars are given,2 PhD students are graduated, and at least 2 undergraduate researchers are trained.Scientifically, the capture and recovery efficiency of thedifferent magnetic liquid formulations will be compared to other concentration methods previously reported, with consideration of the portability of the different methods and their cost. The project will be considered successful if the magnetic liquids display concentration efficiency comparable or greater than other concentration methods that have less portability.