Mohamed El Zowalaty
Qatar University,Qatar
Title: Vecoys and becoys, newly developed nanoparticles for targeted destruction of viral and bacterial agents
Biography
Biography: Mohamed El Zowalaty
Abstract
Bacterial and viral infectious diseases pose continuous threat to human and animal health. The current pipeline of anti-infective agents is limited in targeting emerging viral and bacterial pathogens. Over the past decade, nanotechnology has been an extremely hot research topic, among which gold nanoparticles have been intensively investigated in areas, like in vitro assays, in vitro and in vivo imaging, cancer therapy, and drug delivery, due to their super binding and unique optical properties. The preliminary use of nanostars has been recently reported in our study on the future application of nanostars as antiviral and antibacterial agents. It is noteworthy that this is the first study in literature to test the effect of gold nanoparticles using photothermal approach against influenza and coronaviruses. Both gold nanostars and polymersomes were functionalized with regions that attract viruses. After virus attachment, gold nanostars were excited using infrared wavelengths to destroy the virion. After attachment, polymersomes rearrange their structure to encapsulate the virus. Under both situations, viruses can be rendered inactive. Similarly, becoys or bacterial decoy nanoparticles are being studied for their effect on Pseudomonas aeruginoa and other highly resistant bacterial pathogens.
