An antiviral trap made of protein nanofibrils and iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles.

Palika, Archana; Armanious, Antonius; Rahimi, Akram; Medaglia, Chiara; Gasbarri, Matteo; Handschin, Stephan; Rossi, Antonella; Pohl, Marie O; Busnadiego, Idoia; Gübeli, Christian; Anjanappa, Ravi B; Bolisetty, Sreenath; Peydayesh, Mohammad; Stertz, Silke; Hale, Benjamin G; Tapparel, Caroline; Stellacci, Francesco; Mezzenga, Raffaele

Minimizing the spread of viruses in the environment is the first defence line when fighting outbreaks and pandemics, but the current COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates how difficult this is on a global scale, particularly in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Here we introduce and develop a sustainable and biodegradable antiviral filtration membrane composed of amyloid nanofibrils made from food-grade milk proteins and iron oxyhydroxide nanoparticles synthesized in situ from iron salts by simple pH tuning. Thus, all the membrane components are made of environmentally friendly, non-toxic and widely available materials. The membrane has outstanding efficacy against a broad range of viruses, which include enveloped, non-enveloped, airborne and waterborne viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, H1N1 (the influenza A virus strain responsible for the swine flu pandemic in 2009) and enterovirus 71 (a non-enveloped virus resistant to harsh conditions, such as highly acidic pH), which highlights a possible role in fighting the current and future viral outbreaks and pandemics.