Real-time molecular methods to detect infectious viruses.

Waterborne transmitted viruses pose a public health threat due to their stability in aquatic environment and the easy transmission with high morbidity rates at low infectious doses. Two major challenge of virus analysis include a lack of adequate information in infectivity and the inability to cultivate certain epidemiologically important viruses in vitro. The use of fluorescent probes in conjunction with fluorescence microscopy allows us to reveal dynamic interactions of the viruses with different cellular structures in living cells that are impossible to detect by immunological or PCR-based experiments. Real-time viral detection in vivo provides sufficient information regarding multiple steps in infection process at molecular level, which will be valuable for the prevention and control of viral infection.