Wrzburg: Detect influenza viruses quickly and easily with chewing gum or a lollipop: researchers from Wrzburg, Braunschweig, and Cologne demonstrate with a new diagnostic tool how this works. Influenza is much more than just a nasty cold – it is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases worldwide, claiming around half a million lives every year.
According to Emirates News Agency, a research team led by Professor Lorenz Meinel from the University of Wrzburg has developed the technology behind a new self-test for influenza, recently published in ACS Central Science. The new principle could make flu diagnosis quicker, cheaper, and easier in the future. Anyone could use it anytime, anywhere, for example in the form of chewing gum or a lollipop that reacts to flu viruses in the saliva of infected people and releases a flavouring. In the mouths of non-infected individuals, however, nothing would happen. This would allow those affected to detect an infection within minutes – without the need for a laboratory, electricity, or medical personnel.
‘This strategy opens up new possibilities for the early detection and control of influenza worldwide,’ says Lorenz Meinel, who heads the Chair of Drug Formulation and Delivery at the University of Wrzburg. The new diagnostic tool consists of the sensor molecule thymol – a natural substance found in thyme, among other things – and a virus-specific sugar building block. When it comes into contact with active influenza viruses, these release the thymol, creating a clearly recognisable taste in the mouth.
‘Instead of relying on expensive and complicated testing procedures, we use the natural human sensory system – taste – as a tool for the early detection of infections,’ says Lorenz Meinel. The researchers are now working on incorporating the sensors into chewing gum or lollipops and making the diagnostic system suitable for mass production. The development process is expected to take around four years.
The team is convinced that such applications are particularly suitable for critical locations such as schools, nurseries, and retirement homes. They could be of crucial importance in containing outbreaks of infection, especially in poorer countries. Artificial intelligence could then also be used to predict where epidemics or pandemics might develop. This would enable the World Health Organisation, governments, local authorities, and even individuals to take precautionary measures at an early stage.