Effective multi-strain inhibition of influenza virus by anionic gold nanoparticles

The fight against highly contagious influenza infection is often hampered by the appearance of drug resistant strains and the inadequacy of vaccines targeted only against specific variants. In this article, we report a novel route to inhibit influenza using anionic gold nanoparticles, which show effective inhibition properties against several influenza strains. The inhibition of influenza, achieved through gold nanoparticles with different anionic groups, suggested that blocking of viral attachment to cell surface could be the primary mechanism of inhibition, although viral fusion inhibition could not be excluded. At the same time, variation in the degree of inhibition with the anionic groups indicated that the antiviral activity of the nanoparticles is not merely governed by the charge density but the functional group itself has a role to play.