CoronaFISH: a new method for studying SARS-CoV-2 and detecting its presence in the body

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has afflicted the world for more than two years, is caused by SARS-CoV-2. The genome of this respiratory virus is composed of a single strand of RNA, a molecule similar to DNA that enables the virus to replicate in the body. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) have developed a new method, CoronaFISH, to observe the virus and detect its presence.

Since the start of the pandemic, the ability to study the biology of the virus in cells and detect its presence in infected organs or patients has been crucial. This requires microscopy visualization tools. "Several techniques currently exist, but most have limitations – they may be indirect, expensive or unreliable. For example, we can use antibodies to reveal viral proteins, but obtaining these antibodies is a long and expensive process, their sensitivity is compromised by variants, and the presence of viral proteins in a cell does not necessarily imply that the virus is actively replicating there," explains Christophe Zimmer, Head of the Imaging and Modeling laboratory at the Institut Pasteur.

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