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Review
. 2021 Oct 4;9(10):1129.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9101129.

Nanotechnology Interventions in the Management of COVID-19: Prevention, Diagnosis and Virus-Like Particle Vaccines

Acharya Balkrishna  1   2 , Vedpriya Arya  1   2 , Akansha Rohela  1 , Ashwani Kumar  1 , Rachna Verma  3 , Dinesh Kumar  4 , Eugenie Nepovimova  5 , Kamil Kuca  5   6 , Naveen Thakur  7 , Nikesh Thakur  7 , Pankaj Kumar  7
Affiliations
Review

Nanotechnology Interventions in the Management of COVID-19: Prevention, Diagnosis and Virus-Like Particle Vaccines

Acharya Balkrishna et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 claimed numerous lives and put nations on high alert. The lack of antiviral medications and the small number of approved vaccines, as well as the recurrence of adverse effects, necessitates the development of novel treatment ways to combat COVID-19. In this context, using databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct, we gathered information about nanotechnology's involvement in the prevention, diagnosis and virus-like particle vaccine development. This review revealed that various nanomaterials like gold, polymeric, graphene and poly amino ester with carboxyl group coated magnetic nanoparticles have been explored for the fast detection of SARS-CoV-2. Personal protective equipment fabricated with nanoparticles, such as gloves, masks, clothes, surfactants, and Ag, TiO2 based disinfectants played an essential role in halting COVID-19 transmission. Nanoparticles are used not only in vaccine delivery, such as lipid nanoparticles mediated transport of mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but also in the development of vaccine as the virus-like particles elicit an immune response. There are now 18 virus-like particle vaccines in pre-clinical development, with one of them, developed by Novavax, reported being in phase 3 trials. Due to the probability of upcoming COVID-19 waves, and the rise of new diseases, the future relevance of virus-like particles is imperative. Furthermore, psychosocial variables linked to vaccine reluctance constitute a critical problem that must be addressed immediately to avert pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; diagnosis; prevention; virus-like particle vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of SARS-CoV-2 structure (A). The life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 (B). The life cycle is reproduced from [51] under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) (accessed on 28 September 2021). RdRp: RNA-dependent RNA polymerase; ACE 2: angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Different classes of nanoparticles. NPs: nanoparticles (created using biorender.com) (accessed on 28 September 2021).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Nanotechnology-based approaches for MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 detection. Nanoparticles (NPs); gold NPs (AuNPs); field-effect transistor sensor (FET sensor); Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV); severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); SARS-CoV-nucleocapsid protein (SARS-CoV-ncp); RT-LAMP associated with NP-based biosensor assay (RT-LAMP-NBS); Poly amino ester with carboxyl groups-coated magnetic NPs (pcMNPs); gold nanoislands (AuNIs); nanopore-targeted sequencing (NTS); localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR); reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Affordability of some vaccines (these are the lowest pricing that the developers have ever provided to any country).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Virus-like particle (A). Virus-like particle vaccine development using various expression systems (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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