Accurate diagnosis and effective antiviral treatments are urgently needed for the prevention and control of flu caused by influenza viruses. In this study, a novel oleanic acid (OA) functionalized gold nanorod OA-AuNP was prepared through a convenient ligand-exchange reaction. As hemagglutinin (HA) on the viral surface binds strongly to the multiple OA molecules on the surface of the nanoparticle, the prepared OA-AuNP was found to exhibit potent antiviral activity against a wide range of influenza A virus strains. Furthermore, the change in color resulting from the specific binding between HA and OA and the resultant aggregation of the OA-AuNP can be visually observed or measured by UV-vis spectra with a detection limit of 2 and 0.18 hemagglutination units (HAU), respectively, which is comparable to the commercially available influenza colloid gold rapid diagnostic kits. These findings demonstrate the potential of the OA-AuNP for the development of novel multivalent antiviral conjugates and the diagnosis of influenza virus.
Keywords: Gold nanorod; Influenza hemagglutinin inhibitor; Influenza virus detection; Multivalent oleanic acid.
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