Michigan State University scientist, Morteza Mahmoudi, believes nanotechnology could be an answer to one of the coronavirus pandemic's problems. Diagnosis and risk assessment could greatly be facilitated through analyzing nanoparticles or magnetic levitation, says Mahmoudi.
In addition, he says that the technology could also prevent health care centers from being overwhelmed with patients, as experienced during the early stages of the pandemic. He also believes that it could significantly bring death rates to a minimum and improve the management of future disease outbreaks.
His paper, entitled 'Emerging Nanotechnologies to Assess Risk of Mortality from COVID-19 Infection', was published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics on May 7, 2020.
The Nanotechnology Approach
A study on nanotechnology defines the term as 'the science and engineering involved in the design, characterization, synthesis, and application of materials and equipment whose smallest occupational organization, in at least one dimension, is on the nanometer scale or one billionth of a meter.'
Mahmoudi says that the concept is based on the varying levels of infection and stages of the disease. Additionally, these stages could alter the makeup of biological fluids, such as tears, urine, saliva, and plasma. Different infections and illnesses create different arrangements specific to the viral load and disease stage. He adds that identifying and listing those patterns would be fundamental to any development in diagnostic technology.
Furthermore, the paper discusses that analysis of the structure of the crowns at the surface of tiny particles aided with statistical approaches could allow the platform to provide a 'fingerprint' pattern for patients who may be at a death risk after being infected by COVID-19.
An advantage of using the technology, according to Mahmoudi, is its simplicity. Nanotechnology allows the deployment of on-site devices where patients are being cared for. In addition, medical professionals' presence would not be necessary since the samples used for the test are easily attainable body fluids.
How Could Magnetic Levitation Help With the Coronavirus Crisis of Today?
Mahmoudi also suggested nanoparticle-based magnetic levitation (MagLev) as a helpful solution in dealing with today's coronavirus situation. In his paper, he describes it as 'a fast, easy, and powerful method for levitating non-biological and biological species, along with different types of materials and human or animal cells nurtured in a paramagnetic fluid.'
With time, noticeable bands of proteins form, which will separate by density. Similar to the protein crown, the uniquely-shaped groups of proteins form distinct and stable patterns that can be used for fingerprinting disease and stages of infection.
Mahmoudi discovered that "MagLev optic images of levitated proteins, set to machine-learning analysis, offer beneficial information on a person's health status." He claims that the technology's diagnostic capabilities will be helpful for patients at high risk of death from COVID-19.
Although he mentioned in his paper that a disadvantage of the proposed approaches is that it lacked specific biomarkers or nucleic acid to detect, he still deems that the methods could be helpful for the current pandemic.
He concluded that such nanotechnologies used for early-stage identification of high-risk patients could significantly prevent severe healthcare resource shortages. Additionally, it could also diminish death rates and improve the management of future outbreaks.
