This article describes the pathological studies of fatal severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in a 73-year-old man during an outbreak of SARS in Taiwan, 2003. Eight days before onset of symptoms, he visited a municipal hospital that was later identified as the epicenter of a large outbreak of SARS. On admission to National Taiwan University Hospital in Taipei, the patient experienced chest tightness, progressive dyspnea, and low-grade fever. His condition rapidly deteriorated with increasing respiratory difficulty, and he died 7 days after admission. The most prominent histopathologic finding was diffuse alveolar damage of the lung. Immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization assays demonstrated evidence of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection in various respiratory epithelial cells, predominantly type II pneumocytes, and in alveolar macrophages in the lung. Electron microscopic examination also revealed coronavirus particles in the pneumocytes, and their identity was confirmed as SARS-CoV by immunogold labeling electron microscopy. This report is the first to describe the cellular localization of SARS-CoV in human lung tissue by using a combination of immunohistochemistry, double-stain immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, electron microscopy, and immunogold labeling electron microscopy. These techniques represent valuable laboratory diagnostic modalities and provide insights into the pathogenesis of this emerging infection.

Genetically engineered Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) was coated with uniform layers of palladium metal particles in aqueous solution without the aid of an external reducing agent while producing nanowires of 300 nm in length and 30-60 nm in diameter. By combining a gold nanogap approach and electron beam assisted Pt deposition approach, an innovative electrical characterization technique has been developed in order to determine the resistance of a single Pallidium-Tobacco Mosaic Virus (Pd-TMV) nanorod. The preliminary results showed that these nanoparticles are indeed electrically conductive and that this technique can provide resistance measurements of these types of biotemplated nanoparticles.

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