ABSTRACT
The world facing public health crisis due to novel corona virus and it created awareness regarding the prevention of spread of viruses. Treatment and prevention modalities include vaccinations for modulating immunity and use of antiviral drugs. Biocompatible polymers show immense possibilities toward the development of antiviral therapeutics. Researchers have engineered such polymers with antiviral efficacy in fabricating face masks, personal protective equipment, gloves or surfaces, or as surface coating element which can destroy the adhered viruses or other microorganisms. Antiviral polymers have also been constructed for efficient viral prevention and antiviral drug carriers. Here, we summarized different kinds of polymers having antiviral activities. The antiviral polymers are extensively used in drug delivery, protective application, and in food packaging applications. The ongoing clinical research on these areas is presented in this chapter. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging human infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2, initially called novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV) virus. Thus, an accurate and specific diagnosis of COVID-19 is urgently needed for effective point-of-care detection and disease management. The reported promise of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides (Ti3C2Tx MXene) for biosensing owing to a very high surface area, high electrical conductivity, and hydrophilicity informed their selection for inclusion in functional electrodes for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Here, we demonstrate a new and facile functionalization strategy for Ti3C2Tx with probe DNA molecules through noncovalent adsorption, which eliminates expensive labeling steps and achieves sequence-specific recognition. The 2D Ti3C2Tx functionalized with complementary DNA probes shows a sensitive and selective detection of nucleocapsid (N) gene from SARS-CoV-2 through nucleic acid hybridization and chemoresistive transduction. The fabricated sensors are able to detect the SARS-CoV-2 N gene with sensitive and rapid response, a detection limit below 10(5) copies/mL in saliva, and high specificity when tested against SARS-CoV-1 and MERS. We hypothesize that the MXenes' interlayer spacing can serve as molecular sieving channels for hosting organic molecules and ions, which is a key advantage to their use in biomolecular sensing.