Antimicrobial peptides and their potential application in antiviral coating agents.

Coronavirus pandemic has evidenced the importance of creating bioactive materials to mitigate viral infections, especially in healthcare settings and public places. Advances in antiviral coatings have led to materials with impressive antiviral performance; however, their application may face health and environmental challenges. Bio-inspired antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are suitable building blocks for antimicrobial coatings due to their versatile design, scalability, and environmentally friendly features. This review presents the advances and opportunities on the AMPs to create virucidal coatings. The review first describes the fundamental characteristics of peptide structure and synthesis, highlighting the recent findings on AMPs and the role of peptide structure (α-helix, ß-sheet, random, and cyclic peptides) on the virucidal mechanism. The following section presents the advances in AMPs coating on medical devices with a detailed description of the materials coated and the targeted pathogens. The use of peptides in vaccine formulations is also reported, emphasizing the molecular interaction of peptides with different viruses and the current clinical stage of each formulation. The role of several materials (metallic particles, inorganic materials, and synthetic polymers) in the design of antiviral coatings is also presented, discussing the advantages and the drawbacks of each material. The final section offers future directions and opportunities for using AMPs on antiviral coatings to prevent viral outbreaks.

Hybrid alginate-copper sulfate textile coating for coronavirus inactivation

Abstract The sanitary crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 has increased the demand for bioactive materials to mitigate coronavirus spread. The use of masks has been reported as an essential strategy to prevent coronavirus transmission, but masks can become contaminated rapidly after use. Metals species containing compounds, especially those from the copper group, present properties that can be explored to suppress viral activity. Natural polymers, like alginate, can improve biocompatibility and adjust metal ion availability on hybrid coatings. This study assesses iron, copper, silver, and gold salts and their combination with biopolymers to design surfaces with virucidal properties. Viral inactivation assays with MHV-3 coronavirus strain and cytotoxicity tests with L929 cells were conducted to the hybrid coatings on polypropylene masks. These coatings were characterized by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflectance device, and atomic absorption spectroscopy techniques. Multilayer coatings of alginate-copper sulfate presented 99.99% viral inactivation in a timely release of copper ions.