4.3.3. Nanotechnology-based Approaches to Manage COVID-19
Along with the efforts made in the field of discovering and developing
various types of drugs through different approaches, adopting a
multidisciplinary perspective by making use of nanomaterials in the
field of detection and diagnostics, drug delivery, protective equipment,
and other preventive strategies can prove to be helpful.
Real-Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is the widely used
diagnostic method for detecting COVID-19 and this process can be made
less labor-intensive and less time-consuming by using nanoparticles in
the viral extraction procedure. Nanoparticles can help to upregulate the
immune response against the antigen and also in increasing the
specificity of the immune response by directing the antibodies towards
the specific antigen. Silver or gold nanoparticles are widely used in
point of care devices where the viral antigen binds to these
nanoparticles and this binding produces a detectable change of color.
Nanobiosensors have been developed which can rapidly detect SARS-Cov-2
with good accuracy and cost effectivity.
Nanotechnology-based solutions can be used to develop highly efficient
anti-viral coatings which can further be used in the making of personal
protective equipment and face masks, for example, nanofibers developed
using copper oxide and graphene oxide can inactivate virus particles and
can be incorporated into face masks. The scope of the application of
nanoparticles in the health sector does not end here. By bringing
together the conventional antiviral modalities along with the advantages
of nanoscale particles, it is possible to improve detection and
treatment methods, thereby helping in improving the COVID-19 management
strategy. The applications of nanotechnology in the effective
management of COVID-19 are shown in Figure 8 . There has been a
substantial amount of research performed on efficient drugs against
COVID-19, and a comparison of the efforts put into finding chemical
drugs, phytochemical drugs, and nanotechnology-based approaches in the
last 5 years is shown in Figure 3B .
CURRENT ADVANCES IN VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
Besides the aim of developing effective drugs to treat COVID-19, efforts
have also been made to develop promising vaccines that can boost
immunity and control viral infection. The process of development of the
various vaccines that are available now or those that are under trial
has occurred at such an accelerated rate that we now have over 184
vaccine candidates in their preclinical development stage and over 100
vaccine candidates undergoing clinical trials. Of these, almost fifty
are undergoing human experimentation and some of them have also been
approved for administration. There are mainly 4 types of COVID-19
vaccines- 1) whole virus vaccine 2) protein-based vaccine 3) viral
vector vaccine and 4) nucleic acid vaccines. All vaccines that are
presently in the trial are injected vaccines, however, to control an
infection that mainly starts in the nasopharynx, nasal vaccines may
prove to be more helpful. Lyophilized vaccines can be administered
intranasally if it has good aerosol properties. Recently, The Bharat
Biotech has developed a one drop nasal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, named
“CoroFlu”, and it is presently in the animal trials stage. A brief
description of some of the vaccines currently in phase 3 (humantrials)
and phase 4 (post-marketing surveillance) study are mentioned inTable 3 . The different vaccines that are currently in use are
summarized in Table 4.
The COVID-19 vaccines currently in use have shown good efficiency and it
was seen that it reduced COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions as
well as deaths. However, these benefits don’t come without risks. The
reported side effects of the mRNA-based vaccines in use so far include
fever, redness, swelling, injection site pain, myalgia,
arthralgia, induration, pruritus, chills, vomiting, fatigue, and
headache. It was also reported that the adenovirus-vectored vaccine was
associated with higher rates of diarrhea and arthralgia. Extreme and
severe side effects have been rarely reported and those that have been
reported do not have any evidence to direct the cause to the vaccine.
The relatively rapid and successful development of the vaccines against
COVID-19 is to be truly appreciated, however, with the evolving virus,
it is equally important to take up an evolving vaccine approach, where
vaccines need to be continuously modified to maintain their efficiency.
RISKS OF COVID-19