{"id":2389032,"date":"2020-06-19T08:09:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T12:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/?p=2389032"},"modified":"2020-06-19T08:09:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T12:09:56","slug":"nanosponges-coronavirus-lung-cells-2389032","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futurity.org\/nanosponges-coronavirus-lung-cells-2389032\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Nanosponges’ draw coronavirus away from lung cells"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Nanosponges” appear to stop the coronavirus infection in its tracks by diverting its attention away from living lung cells, researchers report.<\/p>\n
The technology could have major implications for fighting the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the global pandemic that’s already claimed nearly 450,000 lives and infected more than 8 million people. But, perhaps even more significantly, it has the potential to be adapted to combat virtually any virus, such as influenza or even Ebola.<\/p>\n
“Conceptually, it’s such a simple idea. It mops up the virus like a sponge.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“I was skeptical at the beginning because it seemed too good to be true,” says co-first author Anna Honko, a microbiologist at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). “But when I saw the first set of results in the lab, I was just astonished.”<\/p>\n
The technology consists of very small, nanosized drops of polymers\u2014essentially, soft biofriendly plastics\u2014covered in fragments of living lung cell and immune cell membranes.<\/p>\n
“It looks like a nanoparticle coated in pieces of cell membrane,” Honko says. “The small polymer [droplet] mimics a cell having a membrane around it.”<\/p>\nAnna Honko mixes the nanosponges with live SARS-CoV-2 virus and lung cells, evaluating how well the nanosponges can deter the novel coronavirus from infecting lung cells. (Credit: Sierra Downs\/Boston U.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n