(236e) Enhanced Single-Virus Tracking with Quantum Dots in Living Cells

An efficient transport of genetic materials from the cell surface to the nucleus is a key requirement for viral infection. During viral entry, the virus interacts with various cellular structures and takes advantage of their environments to optimize the delivery of the viral genome to the nucleus and promote efficient viral replication. Improved understanding of their interactions can provide crucial insights for preventing virus-triggered diseases, as well as enhancing the efficacy of virus-mediated gene delivery. The ability to track individual viruses is a powerful tool for investigating viral infection routes and characterizing the dynamic interactions between viruses and target cells. It enables the possible elucidation of previously unknown but critical steps involved in the penetration of viruses into a target cell. As quantum dots have several advantages of remarkable photostability and brightness over conventional organic dyes, they are emerging as a fluorescent probe for biological imaging and medical diagnostics. We report here a general method of labeling adeno-associated viruses with semiconductor quantum dots for use in single virus trafficking studies. The results showed that quantum dots-labeled AAV viruses exhibited excellent photostability against photobleaching, which allows monitoring the dynamics of AAV trafficking in living cells in greater detail. There have been a number of questions about the intracellular behaviors of biological molecules after labeling with quantum dots. To address this issue, we have quantitatively analyzed the motility and intracellular trafficking of quantum dot-labeled AAV in the target cell and compared it to intracellular properties of organic dye-labeled AAV. Taken together, our data demonstrate the potential of this QD-labeling for visualizing the dynamic interactions between viruses and target cell structures.