Prospects for the use of nanostructured silver preparations for the control of infections diseases, including COVID-19

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted significant gaps in human protection from infection. There is a real and fairly high probability of new infections that pose a danger to humans. To combat (prevention and treatment) this kind of infections, new types of drugs are needed, which differ in their mechanism of action from existing antimicrobial agents and vaccines, and thus complement them. These drugs should have complex universal activity against pathogens, regardless of their type (bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa) and, in general, increase the resistance of the macroorganism to infection by pathogenic agents, stimulate nonspecific immunity, both general and local. In this regard, preparations of nanostructured silver are promising. The properties of silver nanoparticles depend on their structure, shape, size, morphology, ligand environment and preparation method. Argovit represents nanosilver formulation with optimized biochemical and toxicological characteristics. Argovit effectiveness for combating infectious pathogens in various fields of medicine was shown for: intestinal infections of various etiologies; acute respiratory viral infections and associated bacterial complications; purulent surgery, diabetic foot; drug resistant forms of tuberculosis; viral infections caused by both DNA and RNA viruses. In the clinic, argovit effectiveness in protection from coronavirus infection and for treatment of the early stages of COVID-19 disease on volunteers was shown.