Abstract

In the frame of COVID-19 pandemic, improved chin straps are obviously necessary to better prevent aerial infection by SARS-CoV-2. Adhesivity of melanins could be applied for trapping virus, but due to present limitations to work with infective agents, we have performed a proof-on-concept assay using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles with similar size (about 100 nm) as a virus model. Cotton fabrics were impregnated with allomelanin isolated from black beans, and ZnO solutions filtered through melanin-containing filters. Results and controls showed that these filters retained efficiently the nanoparticles, suggesting that melanin-treated chin straps could be a valuable and effective protection resource to trap virus and avoid infection.

Keywords: Aerial Infection; Chin Strap; COVID-19; Melanin Adhesivity; Melanin Coating; SARS-CoV-2; Virus Trapping

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Citation

Citation: Juan Carlos Stockert and Jorge Herkovits. “Melanin Adhesivity for Possible Trapping of SARS-CoV-2 on Chin Straps: A Proof-of-concept Assay Using Model Nanoparticles †”. Acta Scientific Microbiology 4.2 (2021): 02-05.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Juan Carlos Stockert and Jorge Herkovits. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.