Diagnostic Techniques: Microarrays

Current techniques for viral detection and discovery, which include culture and serological methods as well as polymer chain reaction (PCR)-based protocols, possess a variety of inherent limitations. In an effort to augment the capabilities of existing diagnostic methodologies, the use of virus-specific DNA microarray technology has been recently applied in both research and clinical settings with favorable results. The primary advantage of this approach is that DNA microarrays containing literally thousands of virus-specific sequences allow simultaneous testing for essentially all known viral species. While previous methods have been limited to testing for a single pathogen, or small numbers of specific pathogens, a panviral assay is less biased and can be designed to detect variant or even novel members of existing viral families. The use of DNA microarrays in both research and clinical settings has the potential to substantially increase the number of instances in which a virus may be identified in biological samples. With the proper bioinformatics methodologies, this technology will also maximize the probability that previously uncharacterized pathogens are detected potentially leading to an improved understanding of the etiology for many chronic human diseases. This article focuses on all aspects of virus-specific DNA microarray implementation, from array design to sample processing, amplification, and data analysis.