Abstract
Infectious diseases account for more than 20% of global mortality and viruses are responsible for about one-third of these deaths. Highly infectious viral diseases such as severe acute respiratory (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are emerging more frequently and their worldwide spread poses a serious threat to human health and the global economy. The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of 27 July 2020, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 16 million people and led to the death of more than 652,434 individuals as on 27 July 2020 while also causing significant economic losses. To date, there are no vaccines or specific antiviral drugs to prevent or treat COVID-19. Hence, it is necessary to accelerate the development of antiviral drugs and vaccines to help mitigate this pandemic. Non-Conventional antiviral agents must also be considered and exploited. In this regard, nanoparticles can be used as antiviral agents for the treatment of various viral infections. The use of nanoparticles provides an interesting opportunity for the development of novel antiviral therapies with a low probability of developing drug resistance compared to conventional chemical-based antiviral therapies. In this review, we first discuss viral mechanisms of entry into host cells and then we detail the major and important types of nanomaterials that could be used as antiviral agents. These nanomaterials include silver, gold, quantum dots, organic nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers and polymers. Further, we consider antiviral mechanisms, the effects of nanoparticles on coronaviruses and therapeutic approaches of nanoparticles. Finally, we provide our perspective on the future of nanoparticles in the fight against viral infections.
Highlights
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that spread directly or indirectly from one person to another [1]
The findings suggest that post-exposure of influenza virus with PEGylated zinc oxide (ZnO)-NPs and bare zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) at the highest non-toxic concentrations could be led to 2.8 and 1.2 log10 TCID50 reduction in virus titer when compared to the virus control
Nanoparticles show great potential for biomedical applications, especially in patients who relapse after completing conventional antiviral therapy
Summary
Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms that spread directly or indirectly from one person to another [1]. This technique could contribute immense level to inhibit spreading and infection of SARS-CoV-2 Taking all of this information into account, the increasing number of outbreaks and severity of viral infections call for novel, multidirectional, safe, biocompatible, cost-effective, target specific and tunable-based alternative approaches to prevent and treat the diseases caused by infectious viruses. One such alternative approach involves nanomaterials and their fascinating properties, which include optimal size, shape, tunable surface charge, superparamagnetism, high surface plasmon resonance, luminescence, photon upconversion, bioavailability, biocompatibility, immunocompatibility/tolerability and biodegradability. We provide our perspective on the potential of using nanoparticles in the future to treat infectious diseases
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