#COVID19
“Tiny discovery in Chinese lab could be a big deal in stopping Covid-19” [South China Morning Post] (Nature original). “A Chinese research team has developed a nanomaterial that can find Sars-CoV-2 viruses in a living cell and remove them. Unlike most existing Covid-19 drugs, the material can inhibit infections from all major variants including Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron with high biosafety, the researchers said….. The structure of the material – called CIPS because it is made of copper, indium, phosphorus and sulphur – takes the form of nanosheets that are about 200 nanometres, around the size of two viral particles…. Normally, the Sars-CoV-2 virus invades human cells with help of the spike protein on its surface. The spike protein binds with the ACE2 protein on the surface of the human cell in the same way a key opens a lock, thus allowing the virus to invade the host cell. CIPS, however, is capable of selectively binding with the virus’ spike protein, resulting in the infection process being blocked… Once CIPS has captured the virus, it forms a stable complex. The complex is then recognised and eliminated by the host’s macrophages, large white blood cells in the human immune system that digest foreign substances…. The good news is that the nanomaterials could be relatively cheap enough for mass production and widespread applications.” (from NakedCapitalism.com)
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