Microfluidics in Single-Cell Virology: Technologies and Applications

Microfluidics has proven to be a powerful tool for probing biology at the single-cell level. However, it is only in the past 5 years that single-cell microfluidics has been used in the field of virology. An array of strategies based on microwells, microvalves, and droplets is now available for tracking viral infection dynamics, identifying cell subpopulations with particular phenotypes, as well as high-throughput screening. The insights into the virus–host interactions gained at the single-cell level are unprecedented and usually inaccessible by population-based experiments. Therefore, single-cell microfluidics, which opens new avenues for mechanism elucidation and development of antiviral therapeutics, would be a valuable tool for the study of viral pathogenesis. Recent developments in single-cell microfluidics are about to unlock a new era of virology by providing additional dimensions to the understanding of virus–host interactions and antiviral therapeutic mechanisms.Microwell- and valve-based technologies have been developed for resolving viral infection dynamics at single-cell resolution. Novel insights and perspectives masked by conventional population-based experiments have been revealed.Transcriptomic analysis of virus–host interactions at the single-cell level has entered the age of mass production along with the commercialization of several valve- and droplet-based microfluidic platforms for single-cell sequencing.Single-cell microfluidic technologies with higher degrees of integration and more comprehensive analytical capability are underway, which might revolutionize the study of viral pathogenesis.