FRACTAL APPROACH TO ANTIVIRAL RESEARCH

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FRACTAL APPROACH TO ANTIVIRAL RESEARCH

• Oleksandr P. Fedchuk,
• Associate Professor, Ph.D.
• I.I. Mechnikov Odesa National University
• Odesa, 65110 Ukraine
• Contact phone [phone]
• E-mail grade_at_farlep.net
• Cellular 38 097 686 0584

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Julia set fractal
Julia set fractal was taken as a model for
infection dissemination process. The central
larger part of the fractal cluster denotes the
place where the viral infection was
introduced. It is seen quite well that the ways
of infection dissemination over the substrate is
chaotic but also deterministic as well.
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Self-similarity of Julia set fractal as a model
of viral infection
Demonstration of the object's and projection's
fractal dimension equivalence.
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Difference in optical densities in non-infected
HEP-2 cells and infected cells as seen in
luminescent microscope
NON-INFECTED HEP-2 CELLS
INFECTED HEP-2 CELLS
It is obvious that introduction of the virus into
the cells nucleus leads to the significant
increase to the optical density and thus to the
changes in the diffraction pattern.
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General view of the fractal microscope kit
We use 5 mW He-Ne unimode laser as the source of
coherent radiation. The use of this type of
radiation results in the speckle-type of
diffraction pattern which presents the optical
Fourier transform of the object and, thus,
contains a lot of information about objects
structure which could be extracted using
mathematics.
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The diffraction pattern as seen along the laser
beam propagation direction.

• It is quite obvious that the geometrical
  magnification (limited by the devices size only)
  could be made easily enough of about 1000x
  without any complications caused by immersion
  procedure.
• This figure describes the diffraction pattern
  character which is transmitted into computer for
  further processing with the use of problem
  oriented original software.

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Brief technology description

• Developed a new Fractal Microscopic System
  (FMS) for continuous monitoring of the tiniest
  changes of an objects optical density. FMS
  provides a quantitative view of virus-cell
  interactions in a time-series of frames at any
  stage of the interaction. The FMS is useful in
  life sciences and drug design, in agriculture and
  veterinary sciences, in physics of liquid
  crystals and surface phenomena, in polymer and
  colloid chemistry

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What does a fractal image tell scientist ?

• The fractal image after processing makes it
  possible to estimate the size of the minimal
  cluster composed by the units under consideration
  (e.g. cells, nuclei or viruses) and the fractal
  dimension D of the cluster itself which
  demonstrates the level of the space filling as
  well as the cluster progress.
• In one example, we have shown that the
  intra-spinal brain fluid has liquid crystalline
  properties and forms a fractal cluster. The
  clusters fractal dimension was changed as a
  result of brain trauma and the recovery process
  was accompanied by the changes of the fractal
  dimension. The treatment of the trauma enhanced
  the rate of the fractal dimension changes.
• Another experimental application of the fractal
  microscope is with leukemia blood serum samples.
  The normal serum had distinctively other values
  of the fractal dimension than that taken from the
  leukemia patient. The treatment of the leukemia
  case demonstrated the changes in fractal
  dimension towards normal values of this system
  parameter.

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Innovative Aspect and Main Advantages

• The FMS is based on the fractal structural
  properties of an objects organization. The
  computerized fractal microscope could take frames
  of any nano-scale process, monitoring it in real
  time. The FMS has numerous benefits compared with
  the standard techniques, such as the direct
  infected cells luminescent microscopic counting
• It is a better and simpler way of providing a
  quantitative description,
• It provides an objective quantitative numeric
  measurement,
• It gives in-line quick monitoring of virus-cell
  interaction could be realized at any stage.

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Problem Description Market Need

• The problem is to elaborate and introduce a new
  original effective device for virus-cell
  interaction monitoring at every stage beginning
  from the very first ones (especially in the cases
  of emergency).
• The starting market are the international
  pharmaceuticals drug design centers interested
  in express analysis of the drug efficacy
  evaluation as well as clinical laboratories all
  over the world.
• The potential market is very wide and includes
  firstly the healthcare systems of developing
  countries which need urgently the portable device
  for field antiviral detection and research.

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Areas of Application

• Applications of FMS to life sciences and drug
  design
• For anti-viral applications FMS provides a
  quantitative view of the virus-cell interaction
  in a time-series of frames at any stage of the
  interaction,
• For detecting viral infections of the animal
  semen during artificial insemination,
• Applications to agriculture and veterinary
  sciences
• Food and drug quality monitoring,
• Viral infection transfer monitoring in domestic
  animals and wild nature.
• Applications to surface science phenomena
• For organic materials water dissolution limits
  establishment,
• For chain polymerization process monitoring and
  for production of polymers,
• For problems of surface and interface exchange in
  physics and physical chemistry,
• Self-organization and clusterization control in
  nano-technologies.

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CONCLUSIONS

• As the result of the theoretical discussion of
  the real experiment, we would like to state the
  following
• The possibility of the fractal approach
  application to the problem of virus-cell
  interaction is comprehensively based on the
  platform of modern coherent optics, mathematics
  and computer science.
• The use of the proposed approach has a lot of
  benefits as compared to the standard techniques,
  especially due to its better and simpler way of
  the quantitative, objective and express type of
  virus-cell in-line interaction monitoring.
• The fractal approach could be used widely with
  the purpose of virus-cell interaction every stage
  details' evaluation and it will allow, in
  perspective, the perpetual dynamic monitoring of
  the processes on the molecular level of
  self-organization.
• The proposed fractal approach is mainly
  applicable in laboratory and clinical antiviral
  research as well as in drug design and testing
  process due to its attractive abilities of high
  sensitivity, express character and numerical way
  of data processing.

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STAGE of DEVELOPMENT

• A prototype of the FMS has been assembled and
  tested. It is ready for presentation and
  metrological procedures.
• International patent applications are
  anticipated.

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TARGETED MARKET SEGMENT

• Fractal microscope could be used as an
  express-method of viral particles presence
  monitoring as well as the evaluation their
  infective index.
• Thousands of the proposed devices are anticipated
  in the developing countries suffering from viral
  infections
• The market price of the device could be made as
  small as a triple price of the computer included.
  

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Competition

• The anticipated competition is presented
  mainly by the following companies engaged in
  optoelectronics devices production such as
• THORLABS 435 Route 206, P.O.Box 366, Newton, NJ
  07860-0366, U.S.A. Tel [phone], Fax 973
  300 3600, www.thorlabs.com
• MELLES GRIOT Carlsbad, California 1-800-835-2526
• Fax [phone], E-mail sales_at_catalog.melle
  sgriot.com
• NEW FOCUS 2584 Junction Avenue, San Jose, CA
  95134-1902
• phone [phone], fax [phone]

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Competitive Matrix
Important product or technology characteristics My company or institutes product Name of Competitor 1 Name of Competitor 2, etc.
Key Characteristic (a) Express monitoring Precise measurement Special size particles
Key Characteristic (b) Fully automated
Key Characteristic (c) Possibility of free viral particles detection
Key Characteristic (d) (usually cost) The cost is lower The cost is ten times higher The cost if five times higher
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Opportunities

• The opportunity for joint work is provided as the
  joint stock US-Ukrainian enterprise organization
  based either in Ukraine or in the U.S.A.
• I seek from my potential companion a fruitful
  cooperation in the world market access
• The enterprise will cost not more than 10 million
  US dollars

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Contact information

• Oleksandr P. Fedchuk, Associate Professor, Ph.D.,
  
• Contact phone [phone]
  cellular 38 097 686 0584
• E-mail grade_at_farlep.net
• I.I. Mechnikov Odesa National University
• Balkivska Str. 30A, appt.79, Odesa, 65110
  Ukraine