Early detection of virus infection in live human cells using Raman spectroscopy

Virus infection of a human cell was determined only 3 h after invagination. We used viral vector Ad-CMV-control (AdC), which lacks the E1 gene coding for early polypeptide 1 (E1). AdC can replicate in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells into which the E1 gene has been transfected. According to partial least-square regression discriminant analysis, it was assumed that two kinds of reaction take place in the cell during viral invasion. The first response of the cell was determined 3 h after the virus invasion, and the second one was determined ∼9  h later. The first one seems to be due to compositional changes in DNA. Analysis of large-scale datasets strongly indicated that the second reaction can be attributed to a reduction in protein concentration or uptake of phenylalanine into the nucleus.