Zinc associated nanomaterials and their intervention in emerging respiratory viruses: Journey to the field of biomedicine and biomaterials.

Respiratory viruses represent a severe public health risk worldwide, and the research contribution to tackle the current pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 is one of the main targets among the scientific community. In this regard, experts from different fields have gathered to confront this catastrophic pandemic. This review illustrates how nanotechnology intervention could be valuable in solving this difficult situation, and the state of the art of Zn-based nanostructures are discussed in detail. For virus detection, learning from the experience of other respiratory viruses such as influenza, the potential use of Zn nanomaterials as suitable sensing platforms to recognize the S1 spike protein in SARS-CoV-2 are shown. Furthermore, a discussion about the antiviral mechanisms reported for ZnO nanostructures is included, which can help develop surface disinfectants and protective coatings. At the same time, the properties of Zn-based materials as supplements for reducing viral activity and the recovery of infected patients are illustrated. Within the scope of noble adjuvants to improve the immune response, the ZnO NPs properties as immunomodulators are explained, and potential prototypes of nanoengineered particles with metallic cations (like Zn2+) are suggested. Therefore, using Zn-associated nanomaterials from detection to disinfection, supplementation, and immunomodulation opens a wide area of opportunities to combat these emerging respiratory viruses. Finally, the attractive properties of these nanomaterials can be extrapolated to new clinical challenges.

Biosensors based on zinc oxide thin-film transistors using recyclable plastic substrates as an alternative for real-time pathogen detection.

The fabrication of biosensors has different future applications mainly from the perspective of eco-friendly technologies. Label-free strategies, recyclable materials and low-temperature processing are parameters to consider for the development of a new generation of biosensor devices. In this work, Zinc oxide (ZnO) Thin-film Transistors (TFTs) using recyclable plastic substrates were used for real-time enteropathogenic Escherichia coli detection as an approach for biosensing (bio-TFTs). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was used to verify the characteristic absorption peaks at the different steps of the bio-TFT assembly process. The bio-TFTs are ready to observe the bacterial detection by electrical characterization. Finally, detection was validated by a coupled strategy that fuses the genomic DNA extraction from bacteria attached in situ over bio-TFTs surface and, the development of the Polymerase Chain Reaction to amplify specific genes from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli.