An Exploration of Nanoparticle-Based Diagnostic Approaches for Coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

The wildfire-like spread of COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus-2, has resulted in a pandemic that has put unprecedented stress on the world's healthcare systems and caused varying severities of socio-economic damage. As there are no specific treatments to combat the virus, current approaches to overcome the crisis have mainly revolved around vaccination efforts, preventing human-to-human transmission through enforcement of lockdowns and repurposing of drugs. To efficiently facilitate the measures implemented by governments, rapid and accurate diagnosis of the disease is vital. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and computed tomography have been the standard procedures to diagnose and evaluate COVID-19. However, disadvantages, including the necessity of specialized equipment and trained personnel, the high financial cost of operation and the emergence of false negatives, have hindered their application in high-demand and resource-limited sites. Nanoparticle-based methods of diagnosis have been previously reported to provide precise results within short periods of time. Such methods have been studied in previous outbreaks of coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Given the need for rapid diagnostic techniques, this review discusses nanoparticle use in detecting the aforementioned coronaviruses and the recent severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus-2 to highlight approaches that could potentially be used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neurovascular and perfusion imaging findings in coronavirus disease 2019: Case report and literature review.

Central nervous system involvement in severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has increasingly been recognised in the literature, and possible mechanisms of neuroinvasion, neurotropism and neurovirulence have been described. Neurological signs have been described in 84% of COVID-19 intensive care unit patients, and haemostatic abnormalities in such patients may play an important role, with a broad spectrum of neuroimaging findings. This report describes the magnetic resonance imaging neurovascular findings in an acutely ill patient with COVID-19, including perfusion abnormalities depicted in the arterial spin labelling technique.