Nanotechnology for COVID19
We are all aware of the pandemic situation going on right now. Ever since this has started there has been many researches going on about how to prevent or cure this disease. And one such research is if we can use nanotechnology to help us fight against this dreadful covid-19. The perspectives of implementation of antiviral nano systems by experts to fight Covid-19 are still being envisioned.
In the structure of this coronavirus, there are 4 proteins — Spike, envelope, membrane and a nucleocapsid. The spike protein is responsible for attaching itself to the host cell. It consists of a receptor binding domain which recognizes the ACE2 receptor present in the lungs, heart, kidney etc. It has a 20% more binding capability to SARS which can be why it spreads easily among us. Many nanomaterials have been developed, let it be polymers to nanoparticles, oligomers and liposomes. But the clinical transition is inhibited by the fact that when diluted, these compounds lose efficiency as the virus-compound complex dissociates leaving the viruses to resume their replication cycle. Recently, there has been a research where this problem was overcome by synthesizing nano particles that after binding are able to inhibit viral infectivity by damaging the virion by refueling it with broad spectrum antiviral drugs. This would help in blocking the spike protein interaction with the ACE2 receptor. But this is hesitant to be done as receiving these drugs for a prolonged period can be dangerous and the infected person will be more weakened. Scientists are trying to fix this problem in a way that won’t hurt the patients.
Currently, for diagnosis, the technique used to detect covid-19 is using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR), which detects RNA from SARS-CoV-2 and provides accurate results. However, the disadvantage to this sophisticated equipment is the need of a laboratory with biosafety of level 2 or above. Other than this it also takes upto 3 days to acquire the results. This is a time-consuming method and extremely a disadvantage to public health emergencies. Various other testing kits have also been developed but they were found to be inaccurate. This is where nanotechnology can help us to provide solutions. For example, nano diagnostics depend on binding between nanoparticles and the interested target molecules to produce a signal which allow the detection of biomarkers or pathogens. This allows the use of smaller devices and a platform to make use of nanoscale properties available from interactions between the surface and biomolecules. The main advantage of using nano diagnosis is that the device used would be small (hand held), stable and highly accurate which would be easy for rapid testing.
We can say that nanotechnology has much to offer in the fight against covid-19 and has been very successful in treating various other diseases in the past by its advanced combating tool in drug designing as well as in drug targeting and better virus inhibition. Even if we do not feel like it now, we can say there will be a better tomorrow.
