Labouta Hagar I, Hooshmand Nasrin, Upreti Tushar, El-Sayed Mostafa A
College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada.
Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada.
Plasmonics. 2021;16(4):1029-1033. doi: 10.1007/s11468-020-01353-x. Epub 2021 Jan 20.
Lung failure is the main reason for mortality in COVID-19 patients, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To date, no drug has been clinically approved for treatment of COVID-19. Nanotechnology has a great potential in contributing significantly to the fight against COVID-19 by developing effective therapies that can selectively eradicate the respiratory virus load. We propose a novel COVID-19 management approach that is efficient in eliminating the virus load from the airways and protecting the lungs from the fatal effects of the virus. This approach relies on targeting the virus using ACE-2-functionalized gold nanorods (AuNRs) followed by irradiation with near-infrared (NIR) light for the selective eradication of SARS-CoV-2 without off-target effects, i.e., targeted plasmonic photothermal therapy. Using discrete dipole approximation (DDA), we quantitatively determined the efficiency of AuNRs (31 nm × 8 nm) in absorbing NIR when present at different orientations relative to one another on the surface of the virus. The safety and the local administration of AuNRs using a well-tolerated flexible bronchoscopy technique, commonly used for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, ensure feasibility and clinical translation. While requiring further research, we anticipate this approach to result in a first-line treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients that are experiencing severe respiratory conditions or belong to a high-risk population, e.g., seniors and diabetic patients.
肺衰竭是新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）患者死亡的主要原因，其由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）引起。迄今为止，尚无药物被临床批准用于治疗COVID-19。纳米技术通过开发能够选择性清除呼吸道病毒载量的有效疗法，在抗击COVID-19方面具有巨大潜力。我们提出了一种新型的COVID-19管理方法，该方法能有效消除气道中的病毒载量，并保护肺部免受病毒的致命影响。这种方法依赖于使用血管紧张素转换酶2（ACE-2）功能化的金纳米棒（AuNRs）靶向病毒，然后用近红外（NIR）光照射，以选择性根除SARS-CoV-2而无脱靶效应，即靶向等离子体光热疗法。使用离散偶极近似（DDA），我们定量测定了AuNRs（31 nm×8 nm）在病毒表面相对于彼此以不同方向存在时吸收NIR的效率。使用一种耐受性良好的柔性支气管镜技术对AuNRs进行局部给药，该技术常用于住院的COVID-19患者，其安全性确保了可行性和临床转化。虽然需要进一步研究，但我们预计这种方法将为患有严重呼吸道疾病或属于高危人群（如老年人和糖尿病患者）的住院COVID-19患者带来一线治疗方案。
