Nanostructures for Antiviral Therapy: In the Last Two Decades

Background: Viral infection is one of the global health problems and for the eradication of such infections no considerable antiviral agents are available. In addition, problem of emerging resistance to available antiviral agents is also rising day by day. The treatment of viral infection is indeed more complicated contrary to bacterial infection. So there is a dire need of identifying new type and technology to design dosage forms for antiviral drugs. In current scientific world, research works on Nanostructured particles are of huge significance because of its vital use in different fields of medical sciences and technology like biomedical, electronic and optical fields. Methods: Research works and online contents related to nanostructures and nanotechnology that were designed for the advancement and effectiveness in antiviral therapy in the last two decades has been reviewed and presented in a summarized form. The efforts of scientists in the field of nanotechnology based antiviral drug design are written precisely to guide research workers, students and health care professionals. Results: Regarding viral infections, identification of numerous nanostructured particles has been done. In last two decades, these particles have been reported with some potential activities against different viruses and exhibits potent role in preventing and curing different viral infections. Conclusion: The antiviral systems based on nanotechnology can be designed with different and advanced functions like they might possess a different mechanism for releasing of the drug from its dosage design, more amount of drug might be available in biological fluid, improved activity with minimum adverse reactions and cost effectivity. Further, these designs might also provide specific and targeted drug delivery to the infected sites and viral pools in the body. Extensive research on receptor-based antiviral nanoparticles is going on which could reduce toxic and harmful effects of drugs in other normal tissues and ensure availability of accurate amount of dose to the targeted area.