Figure 6.

AuNP-based scanometric and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for the detection Ebola virus (EBOV). It is a chip-based detection scheme in which the target DNA is captured by immobilized, specific DNA oligonucleotides and then directly labeled by AuNP-DNA probes, followed by silver enhancement. The AuNPs enhance the surface area available for silver deposition and DNA immobilization to achieve highly sensitive scanometric detection signals. Modification of the AuNP probes with Cy3 allows the additional SERS-based detection of target DNA. This scheme has been reported for the detection of a wide range of viral nucleic acids, including those of HCV, HBV, and HAV, which belong to different virus groups ⁵⁰. Furthermore, the scanometric detection reported in this scheme has been considered a universal step in other detection schemes described for other viruses, such as HEV ⁸² and HIV ⁸¹, ⁸⁴.