AgNPs capped with hydroxychloroquine: healing wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus

Covid-19 is considered to have new properties, and although it is classified as β coronavirus, it is different from MERS-COV and SARS-COV
.
However, current studies show that the virus has a nucleotide identity of close to 80% with SARS-COV and a match of more than 89%
with the SARS-COV gene.
This virus produces peptides that are analyzed by proteases (3CL Pro, PL Pro) into 11 different sites, resulting in non-structural proteins that play a major role in viral replication, so this enzyme can be considered a target against
these viruses.
Almost all existing antiviral drugs are just organic compounds that are able to bypass the system with which the virus works together, causing it to face the immune system and then kill
.
Unfortunately, this pharmacological battle has not succeeded in defeating this virus, so it is necessary to think outside the box and look for a drug
that can kill the virus or change its protein structure.

Because nanosilver has the effect of inhibiting respiratory enzymes, it is widely used as an effective and safe antibacterial agent
.
Silver also has the advantage that
it can be prepared using environmentally friendly biological methods.
Among other types, silver nanoparticles are used as antiviral agents
against HIV-1, hepatitis B, and herpes simplex viruses.
The researchers also believe that nanoscale silver is able to bind to the amino and carboxyl terminal groups of viral proteins, or penetrate their walls and cause significant changes
in RNA.
The toxicity of silver nanoparticles is almost non-existent, and only one study has attracted attention when using silver nanoparticles, as this study shows the sensitivity
of silver to primary stem cells of rat sperm.
This can be overcome
by using polymeric materials that carry nanosilver or by adding other pharmaceutical compounds to them.
The study aims to prepare silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by a green method that depends on the reaction of silver nitrate (safe for humans) with phoenix extract (safe for humans), followed by coating with hydroxychloroquine (HQ, known antiviral drug).

Evaluation of cytotoxicity of plant AgNPs/HQ on renal cells:

Prepare AgNPs/HQ
with antiviral activity against COVID-19 in aqueous media using the one-pot method.
The activity of anticovid-19 is
evidenced by a decrease in the TCID50 ratio of covid-19 suspensions after treatment with AgNPs/HQ drugs.
Although the anticovid-19 mechanism remains undiscovered, experiments have shown a relationship
between AgNPs/HQ drug activity and its concentration.

This substance will fight the virus with different mechanisms (i) silver will easily carry the drug into the cell, and then (ii) nanosilver will physically inhibit the virus, reducing its sensitivity
to binding to host cells.
In addition, (iii) silver nanoparticles are much smaller than the size of the virus, making it eligible to enter the virus and alter the structure of
the RNA.
In addition, (iv) silver has the potential to interact
with amino and carboxyl terminals in viral proteins.

SEM for Covid-19 before (a) and after treatment with AgNPs/HQ:

The results of TCID50 show that nanomedicines prepared using 400 mg/ml AgNPs/HQ are able to reduce COVID-19 survival to approximately 22%.

The resulting nanomedicine is also used to heal wounds infected with Staphylococcus aureus, histological results show improvement in all disease symptoms, rapid multiplication of the epidermis layer, rapid healing of infected wounds
.

It can also be theoretically proven that when the drug is used in humans, the virus infection rate will be much lower, because the HQ drug only acts on ACE2 in the body, which provides a greater chance
for the immune system to completely clear the virus.
The anti-Staphylococcus aureus results proved that just five days later, the measurements showed that there were no bacteria
on the infected wounds treated with nanomedicines (AgNPs/HQ).

Results of incubating samples after 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 days:

References:

H Ali A, A Alheety M, Hasen Alubaidy M, Dohare S.
Nano drug (AgNPs capped with hydroxychloroquine): Synthesis, characterization, anti-covid-19 and healing the wound infected with S.
aureus.
Mater Chem Phys.
2022 Aug 1; 287:126249.
doi: 10.
1016/j.
matchemphys.
2022.
126249.
Epub 2022 May 12.
PMID: 35581994; PMCID: PMC9096690.