COVID-19 under the Nanotechnology Microscope

COVID-19 belongs to the family of coronaviruses like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and others belong to the same family. Scientific studies have also demonstrated that COVID-19 is a small spherical virus with a diameter of about (125 nm) (i.e. 125 parts per million of a millimetre). This Nano-scale has opened up advanced nanotechnology a broad pathway to aggressively entering the battle to get rid of this virus.

TATNANO.com published that (N95) masks that are supported by nanotechnology prevent infection with COVID-19, where they are made of materials that allow breathing without passing the Coronavirus, because of the size of the Nanopores between their tissues is much less than the size of the virus.

There are also many articles published on sites that come under the concept of "no need to panic, nanotechnology is there to help", as these articles documented experiments that developed a successful anti-coronavirus based on the principle of nanoparticles. By studying the molecular formation of the virus, it is found that it includes four types of proteins. These proteins work on forming its genome, and its capsid, envelopes, and spikes (Glycoprotein) attached to the surface of the capsid, and those spikes are known as their protein type (S). This protein acts as a thief key that opens the door of the target cell capsid for the virus to enter and put its genome inside the cell. Then, the virus exploits all of the cell-capabilities in order to clone a large number of new infections inside them, which leads to the cell explosion to exit those viruses to infect neighbouring cells and exacerbate the symptoms of the disease and spread its viruses through the sneeze and cough of people Infected with it.

According to recent studies, nanotechnologies have been used to develop nanoparticles that neutralize protein (S) including (golden nanoparticles and carbon quantum dots CQDs) where these particles interact with protein spikes (S), to destroy the virus and prevent it from penetrating the cell. Experiments have proven that CQDs with a diameter of no more than 10 nm have the ability to dissolve in water. In this way, these nanoparticles can penetrate the cell wall to resist protein (S in order to prevent it from cloning itself inside the cell. Many experiments are conducted in several laboratories, such as the University of Lille-France and the University of Rohr Bochum-Germany, using this method, these experiments succeed in discouraging the work of these spikes and also significantly reduce the rate of cell proliferation, i.e. after one life cycle of Coronavirus, estimated at 5.5 hours, significant inhibition of reproduction of the virus is observed.