UC Riverside

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Intracellular Detection of Viral Replication of Dengue Virus Serotype 1 using a Molecular Beacon Fluorescent Probe

by

Katie Elouise Curnyn

Master of Science, Graduate Program in Microbiology

University of California, Riverside, December 2016

Dr. Marylynn V. Yates, Chairperson

Dengue virus (DENV) is currently the most prevalent arbovirus, causing an estimated 390 million new infections and 500,000 deaths each year in tropical and subtropical regions. The economic burden of medical care, missed work and school days, and mortality has been approximated to be $950 million per year, although recent research indicates this number is higher as a significant number of patients have begun to report prolonged fatigue following infection. The development of rapid, sensitive, and accurate methods for its detection are greatly needed to aid in the treatment and prevention of the disease, such as the development of antiviral drugs, vaccines, and vector control. This work has resulted in the development of two different molecular beacons (MB) fluorescent probes specific to conserved regions of the DENV1 genome. For both MBs, results show a significance increase in fluorescence intensity in the presence of the target viral genome. MBs have a wide range of applications and can be a powerful tool for the detection of viral replication, with high sensitivity and specificity, in a shorter amount of time than traditional methods.