Lasers can be used to zap viruses in blood, making the process of disinfecting blood for transfusions more efficient, a father-son team reported in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.
The technique devised by Johns Hopkins University student Shaw-Wei David Tse and his father Kong-Thon Tsen, a laser expert at Arizona State University, uses a low-power laser beam with a pulse lasting just fractions of a seconds instead of current methods using UV irradiation and radioisotopes can leave a trail of mutated or damaged blood components.
The researchers aimed a low-power 425 nm wavelenghth visible laser with a pulse lasting 100 femtoseconds (10-13 second) into glass tubes containing saline-diluted viruses that infect bacteria, also known as bacteriophages and the amount of infectious virus within each cube plummeted 100- to 1000-fold after the laser treatment.
“I had to repeat the experiment several times to convince myself that the laser worked this well,” the younger Tsen said.
Their laser is different from those emitting a continuous beam of visible light.
“Our laser repeatedly sends a rapid pulse of light and then relaxes, allowing the solution surrounding the virus to cool off,” Tsen says. “This significantly reduces heat damage to normal blood components.”
Building on the idea that vibration wrecks a virus’ outer shell, the scientists found that their low-power laser selectively destroys viruses and spares normal human cells around them, while stronger beams kill almost everything.
Father and son speculate that laser vibrations could destroy drug-resistant and -sensitive viruses alike, including HIV and hepatitis C.
Wu says that the technique his student developed “could potentially be used to control communicable diseases by giving infusions of laser-treated blood products.”
“We believe this work on bacterial viruses is promising, but the real test will be with more serious pathogens like HIV and hepatitis,” said.
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