Sticky tape for catching viruses
Viruses can be caught on "nanolipuchki"
Kirill Stasevich, CompulentaOur immune system does not always cope with infection, and scientists are constantly looking for ways to help it.
In the case of viruses, this task is especially complicated, since they, unlike bacteria, have neither their own metabolism nor a protein-synthesizing apparatus. And then either immune stimulants or artificial antibodies are usually used, which can be used both to detect and to destroy the infection.
Researchers from the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland took a different path, coming up with an antiviral agent that most resembles sticky paper used to catch flies. In their experiments, viruses were captured on nanoparticles coated with a sticky polymer.
At the first stage, viruses were planted on the nanoparticle, after which the particle with viruses was covered with a layer of organosiloxane, but so that the viruses stuck out and they could be disposed of. Viral particles were cleaned off using ultrasound, and as a result, nanosheets coated with polymer with virus prints were obtained. If the virus got into such a trap imprint, it could no longer be released. A lot of viral particles could stick to one ball.
Creation of a viral "nanolipuchka": SNP – the original silicone nanoparticle,
VIP – the same nanoparticle, but with virus fingerprints (drawing by the authors of the work)By optimizing the thickness of the sticky polymer layer, the scientists tested the traps on a viral solution.
They introduced nanosheets with fingerprints into the serum of human blood containing viruses. In half an hour, as scientists write in Nature Communications (Cumbo et al., A synthetic nanomaterial for virus recognition produced by surface imprinting), traps caught 88% of viruses, although the traps themselves were in negligible concentrations. In an aqueous solution, the efficiency was even higher.
Before launching this method in the clinic, researchers should, of course, check the harmlessness of the results used for humans a hundred more times: will it happen that this nanosilicon will make the patient worse than the virus? Well, you can use these "viral Velcro" not only to purify the blood from uninvited pathogenic guests or for diagnostics: balls, for example, can serve as a good disinfectant in cases where disinfection cannot be carried out by conventional, cheaper methods.
Prepared based on Ars Technica materials: Nanoparticles formed using human viruses, to fight human viruses.
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