Tiny discovery in Chinese lab could be a big deal in stopping Covid-19
- Scientists say their nanomaterial ‘serves as a trap for the virus’
- Findings show the material can stop infections from all major variants
A Chinese research team has developed a nanomaterial that can find Sars-CoV-2 viruses in a living cell and remove them.
The findings were published in August in Nature Nanotechnology.
08:55
Hong Kong health chief says any hotel quarantine reduction will be based on Covid infection data
Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Institute of High Energy Physics, and the Kunming Institute of Zoology – all under the Chinese Academy of Sciences – contributed to the work.
Nanomaterials are extremely small – a single nanometre is one billionth of a metre. The structure of the material – called CIPS because it is made of copper, indium, phosphorus and sulphur – takes the form of nanosheets that are about 200 nanometres, around the size of two viral particles.
CIPS, however, is capable of selectively binding with the virus’ spike protein, resulting in the infection process being blocked.
“It serves as a trap for the virus,” the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology said on its website.
NANOCMS explores frontiers of nanomaterials against Covid-19 and counterfeiting
Once CIPS has captured the virus, it forms a stable complex. The complex is then recognised and eliminated by the host’s macrophages, large white blood cells in the human immune system that digest foreign substances.
“Experiments show that CIPS effectively inhibits infection in cells, organoids and mice, and effectively relieves lung inflammation in mice caused by Sars-CoV-2 infection,” the paper said.
More than 1,000 new coronavirus mutant strains have been discovered so far. Though the Chinese team cannot test CIPS materials on all strains, they found CIPS were highly effective against all variants of concern – Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron.
Good biocompatibility is a prerequisite for the safe application of nanomaterial. Researchers studied the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion process of CIPS in mice and found the material had high biodegradability.
“Mice inhale CIPS through nasal drop and after seven days, it shows almost entire elimination of CIPS from the lung of mice,” the study said.
01:43
The Covid-19 passport implanted in your skin using this NFC-enabled microchip
The biodegradability and biosafety of CIPS nanomaterials indicate it has good potential and application value, but it must still be tested through a series of clinical trials before it can be it ready for use in humans, the unnamed researcher said.
China’s online maps now dotted with Covid-testing booths
The good news is that the nanomaterials could be relatively cheap enough for mass production and widespread applications.
“The nanomaterial could be used as a decontamination agent or surface-coating material to reduce Sars-CoV-2 infectivity,” said the researcher.
