Biosurfactant based therapy against Covid19 from hand sanitization to ARDS treatment: A proposed research hypothesis

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide pandemic disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus transmission occurs from person to person through air in the form of droplets through cough or sneezes. SARS-CoV-2 can survive on different surfaces and time of survival depends on a many of factors like surface type, temperature, relative humidity and type of viral strain. Presently, there is neither a cure nor a vaccine for COVID-19 and that’s what makes the spread of disease so terrifying. Surfactant based sanitization become a primitive measure to stop the spreading of COVID-19. We propose that biosurfactant based therapy and its action against COVID-19 through use of a biosurfactant-based handwashes, gargle or mouthwash, nasal and eye drops can act against SARS-CoV-2 by damaging viral spike glycoproteins (peplomers) due to its amphiphilic nature and micelle formation by biosurfactant corona virus gets entrapped inside the micelle and so washed out from the surface. This hypothesis reveals the role of biosurfactant against corona virus and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) caused by SARS-CoV-2. Biosurfactant can be administered in the form of aerosol to the patients through oral route which will directly reach into infected part of lungs, thereby, dissolving the enveloped virus capsid and also increase in the alveolar surface area. Amphiphilic nature biosurfactant entraps and block the hydrophobic spike protein of corona virus molecule by forming micelle around the spike protein which results in S1 & S2 subunits not allowed to attach to lungs membrane and breaking the corona virus membrane, hence, dissociation of spike protein from membrane will occur. The biosurfactant administered into the lungs against COVID-19 will also reduce the surface tension and thus the collapsing pressure. Thereby, result an increase in the alveolar surface area which enables normal functioning of lungs. This research on relevant animal model, carefully designed and characterized to be a crucial step for testing hypothesis at the organism level, will prove to be essential for the validation of human data.