Researchers continue to develop antivirals to treat viral infections that exist today. Recent development, researchers designed antiviral nanoparticles that are believed to destroy the virus of a number of diseases in our bodies.With different performance with existing antivirus, these antivirus nanoparticles not only prevent infection of healthy cells by viruses but destroy various types of viruses, such as herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus (skin virus), respiratory and dengue syncytial virus (dengue) and Lentivirus (HIV).Nanoparticles are particles that are between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. In nanotechnology, a particle is defined as a small object that behaves as a whole to its nature and its distribution.
Professor Petr Kral of the University of Illinois at Chicago and colleagues explained that most antivirals today only prevent and should be given continuously so the infection does not strike back. As a result, the virus will actually mutate and become resistant or immune to antivirus.Published in the journal Nature Materials, Kral and an assistant professor of chemistry from the University of Texas at El Paso, Lela Vukovic, designed the nanoparticles by mimicking proteins on the cell surface, called heparin sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG).
Keep in mind that most viruses, including HIV, enter and infect healthy cells by first binding to HSPG on the cell surface.Current antiviral drugs imitate HSPG to bind viruses and prevent them from binding to cells, but their bond strength is relatively weak. This drug also can not destroy the virus, and the virus can strike back when the drug concentration began to decline.To that end, Kral and his colleagues are trying to perform complex simulations to design new antivirus nanoparticles by emulating HSPG but are able to bind the virus more strongly while simultaneously destroying them.
"We know the general composition of the HSPG binding virus domains that must be bound by nanoparticles, and the structure of nanoparticles, but we do not understand why new nanoparticles behave so differently in terms of binding forces and prevent the entry of viruses into cells," Kral said as quoted by ScienceDaily on Monday (12/18/2017).
Kral also took experimentalists, virus experts and biochemists from Switzerland, Italy, France and the Czech Republic. The researchers designed in such a way that new antiviral nanoparticles can be more capable. Way, the researchers used advanced computational modeling techniques to produce the right structure for a number of virus types and nanoparticles to the location of each atom. A deep understanding of the interactions between atomic groups in viruses and nanoparticles allows researchers to estimate the strength and duration of potential bonds that can form between the two entities, and helps them to predict how those bonds can change over time and ultimately destroy the virus .
As a result, Karl's team was able to provide the ultimate "design" of anti-virus nanoparticles that can bind inevitably to various viruses, and cause deadly destruction of the virus, without damaging tissue or healthy cells.Tests conducted show that nanoparticles can bind strongly to herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, sinsytial virus, Dengue virus and Lentivirus."We can provide the required data to the design team so they can develop a prototype of what we expect to be a very effective and safe anti-viral broad-spectrum antivirus that can be used to save lives," Kral said.