Nanotechnology supplies a golden platform, where properties of pure metals are modified and improved by converting them into their nanoparticles, and it is applicable to numerous fields such as diagnostics, antimicrobial agents and drug delivery. Nanoparticles act as bactericidal, antifungal and antiviral agents. Several types of nanoparticles (gold,copper,silver,aluminium,magnesium,zinc and titanium) have been reported in literature out of which are known to have antibacterial properties. Viral diseases present challenging problems worldwide. Newcastle disease (ND) is endemic in Pakistan, and is linked with huge economic disastrous to farmers. Application of antiviral therapy to control the active infection of NDV is very limited. Use of nanotechnology to control active virus infection might be a viable solution to limit the disease in effected flocks.
In this study four groups of nanoparticles i.e. gold, silver, magnetic and gold coated magnetic were evaluated against mesogenic strain of Newcastle disease virus. Chicken embryos were used to propagate the virus and infective amniotic allantoic fluid was collected. Evaluation of nanoparticles in reducing virus infectivity as a measure of tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) was performed. Various dosesof nanoparticles (very low, low, medium, high and very high) were allowed to interact with virus suspension in three ways i.e.pre- treatment, post-treatment and co-treatment methods. Virus infectivity before and after the treatment with nanoparticles was measured and subsequently used to calculate reduction factor (RF). All of the experiment was repeated three times.
It was observed that in pre and post-treatment, silver, gold coated magnetic and magnetic nanoparticles groups the infectivity titerswere efficiently reduced at high dose. While in co-treatment, silver, gold coated magnetic and magnetic nanoparticles groups the virus inactivation rates were relatively higher at low and very low doses.
It is evident from the findings that within the tested nanoparticles, silver, coated magnetic and magnetic nanoparticles have equivalent antiviral properties against NDV. While within various treatment methods co-treatment assay proved to be more effective in reducing virus infectivity than the pre and post treatment group. The results of present study are suggestive of testing antiviral properties of the nanoparticles in vivo conditions.