Nanotechnology-Enabled Therapeutics for Global Viral Diseases: From COVID-19 to Emerging Viral Infections

The threat of viral disease remains one of the biggest concerns regarding global public health, as is evident from the recent global pandemic caused by the coronavirus and the repeated outbreaks of new pathogens like influenza virus, Ebola virus, Zika virus, Nipah virus, monkey pox virus, and coronaviruses that are pathogenic. Traditional approaches to antiviral therapy may pose certain limitations, like poor bioavailability, systemic toxicity, mutation rate of the virus, multiple drug resistance, and the inability of drugs to target tissues specifically. The development of nanotechnology has been a breakthrough solution in overcoming the limitations posed by traditional methods. This review aims at assessing the latest advancements in the field of nanotechnology in terms of developing therapeutic interventions in viral diseases, especially COVID-19 and other emerging viral infections. These approaches improve drug stability, bioavailability, controlled drug delivery, and immunogenicity, all while minimizing toxicity in the body. Despite the fact that there are several promising applications for nanomedicines in both pre-clinical and clinical studies, issues pertaining to biosafety, scalability, and regulation prevent their full clinical implementation. Nanotechnology-based treatments constitute a paradigm shift within antiviral medicine with respect to their integration of targeted drug delivery, immune manipulation, and precision medicine. It is important that further interdisciplinary efforts, regulation, and clinical trials contribute to the development of such nanotechnologies to combat viral pandemics in the present and in the future. Keywords: Nanotechnology; Viral infections; COVID-19; Antiviral drug delivery; Nanovaccines.