Materials Such as Molybdenum Oxide Nanomaterials Own Great Antiviral Potential

Molybdenum oxide nanomaterials, calcium phosphate (Caps), and gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) materials own towering antiviral potential, some of them have been clinically applied. Hazardous viruses (such as HIV, HBV, PIV, etc.) still be tricky, while new mutant viruses, such as 2019-nCoV, avian influenza virus, and H1N1 influenza virus have presented. The main reason for some viruses hard to control is that these viruses infect the mucosal surface, and are prone to antigenic mutations and resistance mutations, which led to clinical prevention or treatment not effectively.

The detection, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases are difficult problems in the medical field. Presently, the control of viral infectious diseases is mainly vaccine prevention, but there is no effective treatment strategy for established viral infections. With the advancement of medical research, researchers have found that there are some antiviral materials in the world, and some have already been used clinically. Here list some of them below.

Calcium phosphate (Caps). Caps is the main inorganic component of bone and teeth and plays a vital role in people's lives. The biomedical research of Caps material developed rapidly in the 1970s and was widely used in orthopedics and dentistry. It can be used as a substitute for artificial bone grafts in the form of a thin coating on metal implants.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have become an ideal delivery system for drug transport and release in different types of cell systems. This ideal delivery performance is closely related to many properties of gold nanoparticles.

Silver nanomaterials. Among many antimicrobial materials, nano-silver is the most thorough and has already been used in medical applications. The antibacterial properties of silver have been known in ancient times. Metal silver, silver nitrate, and silver sulfadiazine cups were used for the treatment of burn wounds and the control of bacterial diseases such as dentistry.

The application research of molybdenum oxide nanomaterial in biomedicine is currently less. With the development of nano-medical science, some new functions of nano-molybdenum oxide have been gradually explored, especially in the application of biomedical fields, showing broad prospects. For example, molybdenum oxide nano-disks with specific surface morphology can be well used for antibacterial applications.

Two-dimensional layered molybdenum oxide nanoplates have a plasmon resonance effect and can absorb near-infrared light, making it suitable for photoacoustic diagnosis and treatment, tumor photothermal removal and other biomedical applications. Molybdenum trioxide nano-hollow spheres have great application potential in the load and transfer of poorly soluble drugs. 2nm-sized molybdenum trioxide nanoparticles can be used as bioenzyme catalyst.

Other metal nanomaterials such as gold, copper, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, and other nanoparticles all own antibacterial and antiviral activities. Heavy metals such as silver, copper, lead, mercury and other salts can react with thiol groups in proteins, or replace metal ions in enzymes.

Graphene oxide. In 2004, British scientists discovered a new two-dimensional atomic crystal, graphene, consisting of a single atomic layer with carbon atoms sp2 hybridized. Its basic structural unit is the most stable benzene six-membered ring in organic materials. It is currently the most ideal two-dimensional nanomaterial. As a derivative of graphene, graphene oxide is an exfoliated product of graphite oxide.

Through plaque formation test, indirect immunofluorescence, and Westernblot verification, researchers have found that graphene oxide nanomaterials are resistant to both pseudorabies virus (DNA virus) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (RNA virus), while the inhibitory effect has time and dose dependent. Besides, researchers also found that two-dimensional flake nanomaterials such as molybdenum disulfide and tungsten disulfide also have good effects on anti-virus, but their inhibitory effects are reduced compared to graphene oxide.

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