SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus and nanoscale particles trapping, tracking and tackling using nanoaperture optical tweezers: A recent advances review

Abstract

Recent advances in nanoscale technologies have provided advanced tools that can be easily used to trap, track, and manipulate individual nanoscale particles and viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza viruses accurately. Among the promising strategies that exist to date, optical forces based techniques are the leading tools in this task. Perfectly, focused lasers act as “optical tweezers,” and can trap individual particles and viruses. These forces can be applied to study nanomaterials, viruses, the building blocks of a quantum computer, and collision processes occurring between molecules in a better way than ever before. These cutting-edge tools are capable of trapping, tracking, and manipulating at the nanoscale in three dimensions. The optical tweezers have been used within biological and nanotechnological fields for trapping, tracking, and manipulating nanoparticles, and viruses with high flexibility, precision, and integration. The outcomes are important breakthroughs in the field of molecular mechanics. Here, we review the state-of-the-art optical tools employed in optical trapping, tracking, and manipulation of different particles at the nanoscale. The trapping of nanoparticles down to single-digit nanometer range and individual SARS-CoV-2 are the main features discussed here. Optical tweezers are also capable of sizing and probing acoustic modes of a small virus such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. The optical tweezers can perform tracking of nanoparticles in three?dimensional with high?resolution by forwarding scattered light. Optical tweezers are used to grab single molecules and measure events that are occurring and employed for measuring forces and measuring distance. A miniature and modular system creates a reliable and mobile optical trap that has more potential to be applied in optical trapping technologies.