Will this be the ultimate coronavirus cure that the world has been waiting for? Reports out of China claim that a team of scientists in the country has developed a novel method to fight the new coronavirus strain that causes COVID 19.
The deadly coronavirus (COVID 19) that has now turned into a global pandemic has killed close to 33,000 people in the world.
According to the report first published in China's Global Times, the Chinese scientists have developed a new weapon to combat the Coronavirus."
"They say they have found a nanomaterial that can absorb and deactivate the virus with 96.5-99.9 percent efficiency," Global Times reported.
A Reuters report on the nanomaterial revealed that the Chinese research institute that developed the nanomaterial wants to work with companies to use it in making air purifiers and face masks.
The report highlighted that lab tests were conducted at a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is a leading national public health institute of the United States, located in China's Anhui province.
The nanomaterial deactivated 96.5-99.9% of the coronavirus, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under state think tank Chinese Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
What are nanomaterials?
Nanomaterials have proved their use in a variety of fields and in healthcare, Nanozymes, which are nanomaterials with enzyme-like characteristics is a field of high potential.
According to the US NIH, scientists have not unanimously settled on a precise definition of nanomaterials, but agree that they are partially characterized by their tiny size, measured in nanometers.
A nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter - approximately 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
Nano-sized particles exist in nature and can be created from a variety of products. Most nanoscale materials are too small to be seen with the naked eye and even with conventional lab microscopes.
Northeastern chemical engineer Thomas Webster, who has been using nano-scale medicine and technology to treat diseases is working on ways to find and neutralize viruses using nanomedicines.
Webster, who is part of a team contributing ideas to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fight the COVID-19 outbreak has proposed to develop a way to use nanomaterials that could attach to SARS-CoV-2 viruses, disrupting their structure with a combination of infrared light treatment. "That structural change would then halt the ability of the virus to survive and reproduce in the body," Webster told Nano Werk.
Coronavirus cure
Researchers across the globe are still working on developing a vaccine or antiviral medicines specifically to treat the new coronavirus that causes COVID 19. Healthcare workers currently are majorly focusing on helping in relieving the symptoms through breathing assistance. Though most cases do not require assistance, critical patients need to be put on ventilators.
