Optical micro-manipulation in HIV-1 infected cells for improved HIV-1 treatment and diagnosis
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Laser application in the field of biological and medical sciences has significantly grown, thereby \nstrengthening the field of Biophotonics. Research conducted in Biophotonics focuses on the concept \nof using light especially in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic radiation for \nthe evaluation of living systems. In this thesis new discoveries are presented about low level laser \ntherapy, optical trapping, transmission spectroscopy, luminescence spectroscopy and structured \nillumination microscopy (SIM), displaying the impact each technique has on HIV infected cells. The \nresults showed that the irradiation of HIV-1 infected TZM-bl cells with low power red laser reduces \nHIV-1 infection. The outcomes of this study further proved that when irradiation is used in \nconjunction with efavirenz, an antiretroviral drug, HIV-1 infection could be reduced to undetectable \nlevels in TZM-bl cells. Through the coupling of transmission spectroscopy with optical trapping, and \nseparately, use of luminescence spectroscopy, label free diagnosis of HIV in infected cell samples \nwas achieved. This finding affirms that HIV-1 infection can be detected in a label free manner when \nusing laser based techniques. Furthermore, the photoluminescence spectrometer system was \nemployed to generate a decay curve, which was necessary so as to have some understanding on \nlifetime of the luminescent signal in infected TZM-bl cells. Finally, in order to confirm that indeed \nTZM-bl cells were infected, an established super-resolution microscopy system SIM was used to \ndetect HIV-1 infection in TZM-bl cells. Indeed in the infected cells viral molecules p24 and gp41 \nwere detected through SIM, while they were not detected in uninfected cells. In future studies, super \nresolution microscopy would be coupled to an optical trapping system in order to confirm that each \ntrapped cells is whether infected or uninfected so as to improve HIV diagnosis.
Author: Masixole Y. Lugongolo
Language: English
Topic: HIV Research and Treatment
Subfield: Virology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3047931099