Insight into Antiviral Activity of Ag/TiO2 Nanocomposites Against Influenza H1N1 Virus and Its Antiviral Mechanism

Abstract

Yihe Ma,1– 3,* Xiaojun Xiao,2,* Yutao Wang,3,* Jie Sun,4 Ping Tang,5 Jing Li,3 Xizhuo Sun,5 Damo Xu,1,2 Zifeng Yang,3 Shiguo Chen,4 Xiaoyu Liu2 1Department of Respiratory and Allergy, Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease for Allergy at Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Allergy & Immunology, School of Medicine, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 3State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Nanshan District Key Laboratory for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of General Practice, Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xiaoyu Liu, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease for Allergy at Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Allergy & Immunology, School of Medicine, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]: Synthesis and characterization of silver (Ag)/titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocomposite (ATA) to investigate its antiviral activity against the H1N1 influenza virus and antiviral mechanisms.Materials and Methods: A water-dispersible ATA was prepared by a photocatalytic reduction process from AgNO3 and TiO2. The characterization of ATA was performed by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The antiviral activities and the antiviral mechanism of ATA were investigated in detail by light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and biological techniques such as cell cytotoxicity, 50% tissue culture infectious dose detection, western blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.Results: These results showed the successful synthesis of ATA nanocomposite with uniform particle size and distribution. It demonstrated the highly efficient antiviral activity of ATA in a dose- and time-dependent manner, as indicated by the reduction of viral titer and the reduction of cytopathic effects caused by viral infection. In the presence of ATA, the structure of the H1N1 influenza virus is directly destroyed and even disintegrated, with the damaged surface membrane proteins and fuzzy contour. It reduces the infection efficiency of influenza by suppressing the activity and expression of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The results of mechanistic studies suggested that ATA nanocomposite primarily interferes with virus attachment to viral receptors on the cell surface.Conclusion: Our study suggests that ATA may be a good antiviral candidate against the influenza virus. Compared with AgNPs alone, our synthesized ATA nanocomposites can achieve similar viral inactivation rates using only a much smaller concentration of AgNPs, greatly reducing the amount of AgNPs and their potential side effects. It has great practical value for attaching ATA to the high-efficiency particulate air network in the air purifier, which can kill the virus attached to it and limit its spread.Keywords: silver, titanium dioxide, nanocomposites, antivirus, H1N1 influenza virus

Keywords

• silver
• titanium dioxide
• nanocomposites
• antivirus
• h1n1 influenza virus