Role of Nanotechnology in Diagnosing, Safeguarding, and Treating COVID-19

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is arguably the worst health crisis the world has faced in the 21st century, and the World Health Organization declared this a “public health emergency of international concern” during the beginning of the pandemic and continued for a significant period of time. Considering the public health risk and the delay in introducing a suitable medical intervention to eradicate this virus, many reserachers embarked on different technologies to develop a cure. Nanotechnology has emerged as a promising weapon in the fight against COVID-19 and other similar viral diseases. The unique qualities of nanomaterials make them excellent for a variety of applications, including the development of low-cost, real-time diagnostic systems, reusable personal protective equipment, and innovative carriers for biological cargo such as mRNA in vaccines and CRISPR/Cas9 in gene editing. In this review the current available pharmacological and non-pharmacological options that are being used around the world against COVID-19 are compared with their nanotechnological counterparts. Here, we also elaborate the advantages of currently available nanotechnology-based diagnostics, protective equipment, vaccines and therapeutics and discuss future directions and steps that should be taken to translate these technologies into a clinical setting to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.