General-purpose virus-neutralizing engulfing shells with modular target-specificity

Viral infections affect millions of people every year, yet no treatment is available for 70 % of known pathogenic viruses. The EU-funded VIROFIGHT project is proposing a new radical approach to fight viral infections by constructing synthetic nanoshells that can specifically recognise and engulf entire viruses, neutralising them by occlusion. The interdisciplinary project integrates chemistry, molecular nanoengineering and virology with the mission to develop and test prototypes of engulfing nanoshells that have the principal capacity to neutralise any given virus. VIROFIGHT has the potential to become a revolutionary achievement as shell prototypes can be developed and produced in the course of weeks after the discovery of a viral pathogen, and the drug concept can be adapted for a wide variety of viruses.