COVID-19 therapy approaches and vaccine development: the role of nanotechnology

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) caused an outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and right after that SARS-COV-2 spreads around the world infecting millions of people worldwide. This virus belongs to wide range virus family and cause moderate to severe signs in patients, the Sars-COV-2, can spread faster than others between humans and leads to severe outbreak. Recently researchers succeed to develop various vaccines including inactivated or attenuated viral vaccines as well as subunit vaccines to prevent SARS-COV-2 infection. Nanotechnology is advantageous for the design of vaccines since nano scale materials could benefit the delivery of antigens, and could be used as adjuvants to potentiate the response to the vaccines. Indeed, among various vaccines entered clinical trials, there are mRNA-based vaccine designed based on lipid nanoparticles. Herein, we summarized SARS-COV-2 structure, pathogenesis, therapeutic approaches and some COVID-19 vaccine candidates and highlighted the role of nanotechnology in developing vaccines against SARS-Cov-2 virus.