Identification of SARS-CoV-2 by gold nanoparticles

[摘要] The SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks highlighted the need for effective, reliable, fast, easy-to-do and cheap diagnosticsprocedures. We pragmatically experienced that an early positive-case detection, inevitably coupled with a massvaccination campaign, is a milestone to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can indeedplay a crucial role in this context, as their physicochemical, optics and electronics properties are being extensivelyused in photothermal therapy (PTT), radiation therapy (RT), drug delivery and diagnostic. AuNPs can be synthesizedby several approaches to obtain different sizes and shapes that can be easily functionalized with many kinds ofmolecules such as antibodies, proteins, probes, and lipids. In addition, AuNPs showed high biocompatibility makingthem useful tool in medicine field. We thus reviewed here the most relevant evidence on AuNPs as effective way todetect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antigens. We trust future diagnostic efforts must take this ‘old-fashioned’nanotechnology tool into consideration for the development and commercialization of reliable and feasible detection kits.

[学科分类] 仪器

[关键词] SARS-COV-2;Gold Nanoparticles;Diagnosis;Therapy;Physicochemical properties;pandemic disease