Nanoparticles: a breakthrough in COVID-19 prevention, diagnosis and treatment

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The three key principles in management of the COVID-19 pandemic are prevention, early detection and targeted treatment. Vaccine-based prevention together with early detection has already proven its efficacy in controlling the pandemic. Early detection of infected patients could substantially accelerate the implementation of treatment, but also help to identify infection hotspots, whereas targeted treatment might destroy the virus and minimize damage to healthy tissue. Nanoparticles hold great promise with respect to these aspects. They may also be the solution to emerging clinical problems such as reinfection, pregnancy-related COVID-19 and coinfection. Here, we aim to discuss the potential applications of nanoparticles to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.