ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Biomedical Nanotechnology
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2025.1579997
This article is part of the Research TopicNano-Preparations in the Design of Drug Delivery SystemsView all 3 articles
Quercetin self-assembly nanoparticles with antiviral molecules are effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection
Provisionally accepted
Cynthia Aracely Alvizo
Malon De Jesús Gonzalez EscobedoLuis Daniel Terrazas Armendáriz
Ashanti C. Uscanga-PalomequeItza Eloisa Luna CruzAmalia Maricela Martínez RuízMitchel Abraham Ruiz RoblesEduardo Gerardo Pérez TijerinaReyes Tamez GuerraCristina Rodríguez PadillaJuan Manuel Alcocer González*- Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Inmunología y Virología, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
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Recently, polyphenols have been of great importance in the new methodologies of antiviral nanotechnological strategies. Quercetin is a polyphenol that exhibits an antioxidant action more potent than vitamins C and E, and it plays a powerful anti-inflammatory role in therapy linked to acute respiratory diseases. The present work was based on using biocompatible molecules, which are: quercetin nanoparticles conjugated with two drugs that have antiviral properties; one of them, remdesivir, was already approved by the FDA as a drug against SARS-CoV-2, while the other molecule is considered as a therapeutic alternative, curcumin since it has proven to have very reliable properties to fight viral infections. The antiviral inhibitory activity was evaluated using a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus in Vero E6 cells, as it is an excellent study model since it has a high number of virus-like receptors. The pseudovirus neutralization assays showed encouraging results. Based on the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of quercetin, remdesivir, and curcumin nanoparticles, the nanoparticles obtained 72.7% neutralization for the quercetin-remdesivir nanoparticles (QCT-NPs+Rem) and 79.8% neutralization for the quercetin-curcumin nanoparticles (QCT-NPs+Cur) for the alpha variant. On the other hand, the most important findings obtained from this research are the results of the neutralization of the delta variant, obtaining 98% of the QCT-NPs+Rem and 88% for the QCT-NPs+Cur.
Keywords: remdesivir, Curcumin, Quercetin nanoparticles, Drug delivery, nanocarriers
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alvizo, Gonzalez Escobedo, Terrazas Armendáriz, Uscanga-Palomeque, Luna Cruz, Martínez Ruíz, Ruiz Robles, Pérez Tijerina, Guerra, Padilla and Alcocer González. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Juan Manuel Alcocer González, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Inmunología y Virología, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
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