Researchers to Fine Tune Lasers that Can Potentially Destroy AIDS Virus

A research funded by the National Science Foundation and led by father-son, Kong-Thon Tsen and Shaw-Wei David Tsen, have discovered a way of zapping viruses out of blood using lasers. According to the Institute of Physic's press release, the Tsen's technique, which uses low-powered laser beams with a pulse lasting for a fraction of a second, could be used for disinfecting blood for transfusions.

The research was published on the November 1 issue of the Institute of Physics' Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter and discusses how the method can be fine-tuned to differentiate between a virus and human cells.

In a previous press release by the John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Shaw-Wei David Tsen, a student at the Johns Hopkins University related how the idea formed while he and his father were strolling in a park. Tsen is an immunology researcher of T.C. Wu at Hopkins' Kimmel Cancer Center and he was seeking new ways to get rid of dangerous pathogens in the blood, including HIV viruses and hepatitis C. Tsen says that current methods using UV radiation and radioisotopes leaves a trail of mutated or damaged blood components.

Shaw-Wei's idea was to use ultrasonic vibrations to destroy viruses since vibrations can wreck a virus' outer shell but his father, Kong Thon Tsen a laser expert at the Arizona State University, suggested lasers since lasers can penetrate energy-absorbing water surrounding the viruses and directly vibrate the pathogen. The researchers found that their low-power laser can selectively destroy viruses, sparing normal human cells around them; however, strong beams kill almost everything.

The scientists aimed a low-power laser with a pulse lasting 10 to 13 seconds (Femtosecond laser pulses) into glass tubes that contained saline-diluted bacteriophages, a virus that can infect bacteria. The experiment resulted in the decrease of infectious virus within each cube after the laser treatment. The younger Tsen commented, "I had to repeat the experiment several times to convince myself that the laser worked this well."

Lasers usually emit a continuous beam of visible light but Tsen says that their laser is different and that it repeatedly sends a rapid pulse of light and then relaxes so that the solution surrounding the virus could cool off. This technique reduces heat damage to normal blood components, according to Tsen. The father and son team believes that the laser vibrations could destroy both drug-resistant and sensitive viruses.

According to Wu, his student's technique could be used to control communicable diseases by giving infusions of laser-treated blood products and that he believes that the research is promising on bacterial viruses but it has yet to be tested with more serious viruses like HIV and hepatitis. According to the Institute of Physics, Femtosecond lasers can be used immediately in hospitals to disinfect blood supplies for the treatment of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis.

SOURCE:

Institute of Physics, "Fine-tuning lasers to destroy blood-borne diseases like AIDS". IOP.org

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, "Laser Blasts Viruses in the Blood." hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org

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