Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles as a Potential Agent for Antiviral Drug Delivery Development: A Systematic Literature Review

Viral infection is a worldwide health problem, which has negatively affected global activity in recent years. There is no specific medication for most of the viral infections and the treatments are based on symptom management. Nanoparticles (NPs) in recent years have shown promising antibacterial and antiviral properties, among which metal oxide NPs have shown superiority. In the present study, we aimed to systematically review all available literature supporting the efficiency of zinc oxide (ZnO)NPs in the treatment of viral infections. For this purpose, a systematic literature search was performed in scientific literature databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Ovid, Embase, and Google Scholar by using “viral infections”, “antiviral effects” and “ZnO NPs” in addition to all their equivalent terms as keywords. Due to the lack of human studies, no strict inclusion criteria were defined and all available relevant studies were included. A total of 14 documents that fully met the inclusion criteria were retrieved and used for data synthesis. The results showed that ZnO NPs due to specific physicochemical properties can be a promising approach in developing antiviral agents and nano vaccines, especially against RNA viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. The most probable antiviral mechanistic pathways of ZnO NPs include blocking the virus entry into the cells and deactivation of the virus through virostatic potential. Based on the findings of the included studies, it is suggested that ZnO NPs and other metal oxide-based NPs may be potential antiviral agents; however, further human studies are required to confirm such efficiency in clinical practice.