Application of Nanoscale Materials and Nanotechnology Against Viral Infection: A Special Focus on Coronaviruses

In recent years, viral infections and associated diseases have become a big challenge for humanity due to high morbidity rates globally. However, timely, accurate, and rapid detection of viral infection may lead to the control of morbidity as well as provide enough time for vaccine preparation and early antiviral therapy. Existing virus detection methods based on immunological and molecular diagnosis found drawbacks, such as its time-consuming and costly one. Recently, the introduction of nanomaterials having multiple unique properties with a series of smart and innovative nano-based technologies have been under investigation for rapid viral detection. This chapter aims to critically review recent literature to illustrate the encompassing applications of nano-engineered materials and further highlighting the role of their active surface in improving the virus detection with high sensitivity and detection range, and in a short time.

The authors review the research findings related to emerging nanotechnology-based virus detection systems and their applicability for diagnostics of infectious viruses.

Recent advances in nanotechnology allow for the development of robust, rapid, and sensitive detection of infectious virus to overcome deficiencies of conventional detection technologies. Nanoparticles have several distinctive physical and chemical characteristics such as unique optical, electronic, and magnetic properties compared to their bulk form enabling them the detection of biological agents like viruses. Further, high surface area to volume ratios of nanoparticles also provides a platform for multi-functionalization with various organic or biological ligands for the selective binding and detection of biological targets like viruses. For instance, colloidal gold nanoparticle-based lateral-flow (AuNP-LF) provides rapid diagnosis and on-site diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus via the IgM detection using the indirect immune-chromatography method.

The distinct properties of nanomaterials such as plasmon resonance absorption, conductivity, redox behavior, etc. along with surface functionalization might be used in the development of the nano-sensing system with high accuracy and rapid detection of infectious viral diagnosis at the point of care application.