New Strategies for Virus Inhibition

Highly flexible or spiky nanosystems by Berlin researchers open the door for new antiviral options against influenza viruses. No 098/2020 from Jun 11, 2020 Berlin researchers have applied two new strategies based on multivalent nanosystems for making influenza A viruses (IAV) innocuous. The decisive factor in the development of these new strategies against influenza was the cooperation between scientists from different disciplines - chemistry, physics, virology, and imaging - the collaborative partners of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, and the Robert Koch Institute. The findings were published in three papers in the scientific journals Angewandte Chemie International Edition and Nano Letters . In the first approach the flexibility and IAV binding with 250 nm sized spherical inhibitors' are optimized in such a way that they bind and deforms to adapt onto the virus surface while in contact with the IAV. By doing this, these 3D nano inhibitors efficiently block the virus surface from getting in contact with cells upto 98. As a result, virus cannot enter the cell and the infections is significantly reduced with picomolar concentrations of the inhibitor.