27th May 2020
Emerging viral diseases’ are new infections that appears in a population and very rapidly increase their incidence, causing a major global threat to human and veterinary public health (Morse, 1997).
In humans, virus receptors are predominantly present on ciliated cells in the upper respiratory tract, e.g., in the nasal turbinates, paranasal sinuses, pharynx and larynx (Wölfel et al., 2020) (Richard et al., 2020). What is of dramatic relevance now, while the world is fighting the huge battle against a newly emerged Corona virus (Covid-19), is the access to safe antiviral remediation strategies that use available low-cost ingredients, already tested for their specific antiviral activities that acted during the early stage of virus propagation and replication.
ASINA has the ambition to promote consistent, applicable and scientifically sound safe-by-design (SbD) nano-practices, by considering all the nano-enabled products (NEPs) design dimensions: functionality, production technologies, safety, environmental sustainability, cost effectiveness and regulatory requirements, in line with research responsible innovation (RRI) policy.
We planned to develop intrinsically safe and sustainable nanotechnological solutions (Safe-by-Design approach) for the development of:
1) antimicrobial coatings (in the textile and air filtration sector)
2) lotions / sprays / gels with anti-aging/antimicrobial effect (in the cosmetic / sanitation sector).
One important issue to take into consideration is that the results of this investigation could become a proof of concept for the further development of medical devices, as part of existing or future projects.
Considering that the Corona virus emergency was not so during the preparation of the proposal we did not included in the consortium facilities for testing the viricidal activities of ASINA materials. At the moment ISTEC and COLOROBBIA are supporting with extra funds some validation studies for testing the efficacy against Covid-19 virus. So the consortium is more than happy to activate collaboration with existing projects that have access to validation tools, offering their case studies as technological solutions ready to be commercialized.
ASINA project has been included inside the list of the H2020 project that are tackling coronavirus. You can read the complete list on the official EU website: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/covid-19
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