COVID-19: Nanomedicine Uncovers Blood-Clot Mystery

Abstract

Further complications associated with infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (a.k.a. SARS-CoV-2) continue to be reported. Very recent findings reveal that 20–30% of patients at high risk of mortality from COVID-19 infection experience blood clotting that leads to stroke and sudden death. Timely assessment of the severity of blood clotting will be of enormous help to clinicians in determining the right blood-thinning medications to prevent stroke or other life-threatening consequences. Therefore, rapid identification of blood-clotting-related proteins in the plasma of COVID-19 patients would save many lives. Several nanotechnology-based approaches are being developed to diagnose patients at high risk of death due to complications from COVID-19 infections, including blood clots. This Perspective outlines (i) the significant potential of nanomedicine in assessing the risk of blood clotting and its severity in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients and (ii) its synergistic roles with advanced mass-spectrometry-based proteomics approaches in identifying the important protein patterns that are involved in the occurrence and progression of this disease. The combination of such powerful tools might help us understand the clotting phenomenon and pave the way for development of new diagnostics and therapeutics in the fight against COVID-19.

The need for improved methodology in protein corona analysis

“…The complexity of proteomic instrumentation and the analysis methods for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, which introduce many possible sources of variability, are another source of conflicts in protein corona outcomes 13 , 14 . For example, repeatability and reproducibility in peptide and protein identifications of interlaboratory data set of 144 liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry instruments [i.e., four Thermo linear trap quadrupole (LTQ) and four Orbitrap] revealed the critical role of the employed instrument and data analysis in proteomics outcomes 14 .…”

Nanobiotechnology as a platform for the diagnosis of COVID-19: a review

“…The presence of proteins such as S, E, N, and M enables simple analysis for SARS-CoV 2 using mass spectrometry [257]. Blood analysis using advanced MS-based proteomics approaches will help identify the essential protein patterns of COVID-19′s patients [258].…”

Nanomedicine for COVID-19: the role of nanotechnology in the treatment and diagnosis of COVID-19

“…The important potential of nanomedicine in evaluating the risk of blood clotting and its severity in COVID patients has been shown. Also, its synergistic functions with advanced proteomics, focused on mass spectrometry approach for the detection of the essential protein of the occurrence and progression of COVID, were discussed [186]. Further, a new multidisciplinary, nano-based method has been proposed to detect COVID-19 infection in high-risk individuals in the early stages of the disease.…”