Indian scientists have identified a new route to understand the virology of Monkey Pox Virus (MPV) and develop diagnostic tools for the infection as well as to find a novel path with therapeutic implications, the Science and Technology Ministry said Friday.  

The outbreak of the Monkeypox virus,  also renamed as Mpox virus, has recently been declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) twice in a span of the last three years, raising serious concern about its unanticipated spread across the globe as the modes of transmission and symptoms are not well understood.

A comprehensive understanding of virology, alongside the rapid development of effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, is therefore of paramount importance.

MPV is a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) virus. The detection of the extracellular viral protein gene through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a widely established technique for identifying MPV in clinical specimens. Common detection approaches, including PCR, rely on the amplification of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), which also employs fluorescent probes for quantifying amplification.

While these probes are sensitive to dsDNA concentration, they lack the ability to differentiate between specific and non-specific amplification products. In contrast, specific sequences in DNA can fold into unique structures that deviate from the classical double helix, known as noncanonical nucleic acid conformations.

Leveraging the potential of these unusual DNA structures as targets for small-molecule fluorescent probes may open new avenues for the development of highly reliable diagnostic assays.

G-quadruplex (GQ) is one such unusual noncanonical conformation observed in guanine (G)-rich nucleic acid sequences where four guanines interact through hydrogen bonding forming a planar G-tetrad plane, and the stacking of multiple G-tetrads results in GQ formation.

Scientists from JNCASR, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have identified and characterized highly conserved GQ forming DNA sequences—a set of four, within the MPV genome, and specifically detected a specific GQ sequence using a tailored fluorescent small-molecule probe, enabling precise detection of MPV. The identification, characterization and targeting of unusual nucleic acid structures such as GQs have therapeutic implications.