Nanotechnology as an Alternative to Reduce the Spread of COVID-19
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The present manuscript is well writen and interesting. It is a consice overview on the need for the development of nanomaterials to aid to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Before the paper can be accepted for publication please take into consideration the following:
- To increase the impact of the present work, at least two more figures MUST be added. Take into consideration that this kind of articles might get the attention of wider audience if they are accompanied of representing figures.
- Please make proper reference to the virueses: H1N1, instead of H1N1. H3N2 instead of H3N2. H9N2 instead of H9N2
- Plese cite the following works: a) Page 2, line 96, "Therefore,
nanomaterials can inactivate a wide variety of viruses, regardless of the viral structure and strain." Reference: Nano Research for COVID-19 Warren C. W. Chan. ACS Nano 2020 14 (4), 3719-3720 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c02540. b) page 4, line 162: Please include: Nanotechnology can also be used for the removal of pathogens and viruses from water. Pedroza-Herrera, G., I. E. Medina-Ramirez, J. A. Lozano-Alvarez, and S. E. Rodil. "Evaluation of the Photocatalytic Activity of Copper Doped TiO2 nanoparticles for the Purification and/or Disinfection of Industrial Effluents." Catalysis Today 341 (2020): 37-48. c) Page 4, line 162, for air purification, please add rerference: Martínez-Montelongo, Jorge H., Iliana E. Medina-Ramírez, Yolanda Romo-Lozano, and Juan Antonio Zapien. "Development of a sustainable photocatalytic process for air purification." Chemosphere (2020): 127236.
Author Response
We thank the reviewers for their time and comments for improvements to our manuscript. The comments were incorporated into the revised manuscript. The comments were addressed as follows:
To increase the impact of the present work, at least two more figures MUST be added. Take into consideration that this kind of articles might get the attention of wider audience if they are accompanied of representing figures.
To illustrate mechanisms and applications of antiviral nanoparticles, we added the following figures:
(LINES 175-176) Figure 2. Proposed antiviral mechanisms that nanoparticles use to deactivate viruses.
(LINES 249-250) Figure 3. Representative uses of nanotechnology to combat viruses and other pathogens.
Please make proper reference to the virueses: H1N1, instead of H1N1. H3N2 instead of H3N2. H9N2 instead of H9N2
The name of the virus strains was corrected as suggested.
Plese cite the following works:
a) Page 2, line 96, "Therefore, nanomaterials can inactivate a wide variety of viruses, regardless of the viral structure and strain." Reference: Nano Research for COVID-19 Warren C. W. Chan. ACS Nano 2020 14 (4), 3719-3720 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c02540.
The suggested reference was added, LINE 121, reference 34
b) page 4, line 162: Please include: Nanotechnology can also be used for the removal of pathogens and viruses from water. Pedroza-Herrera, G., I. E. Medina-Ramirez, J. A. Lozano-Alvarez, and S. E. Rodil. "Evaluation of the Photocatalytic Activity of Copper Doped TiO2 nanoparticles for the Purification and/or Disinfection of Industrial Effluents." Catalysis Today 341 (2020): 37-48.
The suggested reference was added, LINE 239, reference 73
c) Page 4, line 162, for air purification, please add rerference: Martínez-Montelongo, Jorge H., Iliana E. Medina-Ramírez, Yolanda Romo-Lozano, and Juan Antonio Zapien. "Development of a sustainable photocatalytic process for air purification." Chemosphere (2020): 127236.
The suggested reference was added, LINE 238, reference 72
Reviewer 2 Report
The review proposed comes from a very good idea: to find in the nanotechnology some inspiration in different sectors, to face the COVID-19 emergency. Though, the presented material is not well organized and needs to be enriched with information more related to COVID.19.
Indeed, the part explaining the possible application of the nanotechnology is well documented, but it can be further improved and has a poor connection with the actual situation.
First, the title may be misleading, since the expectation would be a more pharmaceutical and medical approach. I suggest to change the title as “nanotechnology devices…” or “nanotechnology solutions…” or to improve the part of the manuscript related to the application in the microbial secondary infections.
Then all the data should be organized in tables, per each topic. In the table the application and the size of the particles should be mentioned (like in Table 1).
It is not well explained per each topic the mechanism of action of nanoparticles or applied nanotechnology, how the claimed results are achieved and why they should be preferred to others.
Finally, it should be explained in a more specific way how and with which mechanism the proposed nanotechnologies can be effective against SARS-Cov-2
The review research could be improved and more references can be added to the 66 already presented.
I recommend to publish the manuscript only after the enrichment of the bibliographic research and the suggested modifications.
Author Response
We thank the reviewers for their time and comments for improvements to our manuscript. The comments were incorporated into the revised manuscript. The comments were addressed as follows:
First, the title may be misleading, since the expectation would be a more pharmaceutical and medical approach. I suggest to change the title as “nanotechnology devices…” or “nanotechnology solutions…” or to improve the part of the manuscript related to the application in the microbial secondary infections.
We expanded the information regarding the application of nanotechnology to prevent and treat microbial secondary infections (section 5) and added the Table 3 (LINE 282) for describing some examples of types of nanoantibiotics with current and expected antimicrobial applications.
Then all the data should be organized in tables, per each topic. In the table the application and the size of the particles should be mentioned (like in Table 1).
To organize the information regarding the research and applications of the antiviral nanoparticles, we add the following tables:
(LINE 140) Table 2. A non-exhaustive list of examples of antiviral nanomaterials under preclinical assays in vivo.
(LINE 282) Table 3. Examples of types of nanoantibiotics with current and expected applications.
It is not well explained per each topic the mechanism of action of nanoparticles or applied nanotechnology, how the claimed results are achieved and why they should be preferred to others.
The mechanisms and the advantages of the antiviral nanomaterials are now included in subsections 3.4, 3.5, and in section 4. Additionally, Figure 2 (LINES 175-176) summarizes the mechanisms of action of antiviral nanomaterials
Finally, it should be explained in a more specific way how and with which mechanism the proposed nanotechnologies can be effective against SARS-Cov-2
The explanation of the use of nanotechnology is explained in sections 3, 4, and 5; and is summarized in section 6: perspectives.
The review research could be improved and more references can be added to the 66 already presented.
As more tables and figures were added, and as the explanations were expanded, the number of references increased from 66 to 103. References included are relevant for the text.
Reviewer 3 Report
Herein is reported a concise description of how nanotechnology can be a powerful tool to prevent, or at least minimize, the impact of viral diseases. As more exhaustive review/perspective articles on this topic have been already published, I think this short review can in itself be a tool for researchers who want to quickly get an idea of the state of the art and find useful bibliographic references.
Author Response
We thank the insight of this reviewer. The revised review become longer as we incorporated the comments from the other reviewers, but we also looked to keep the manuscript concise and clear, so it could be still a brief, fast guide of the state-of-art and we briefly described some of the manuscripts that may be more enlightening for the readers.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript has been enriched by new figures that better describe the topics and are an added value to the descriptions. The new organization of the manuscript in tables makes it more readable. Finally, the bibliography has been enriched and updated.
I only suggest a further check of the English language.
I recommend to publish the revised manuscript to Challenges MDPI journal.
