Scientists from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bengaluru have developed an anti-microbial coating which has the potential to contain infection of Covid-19 when sprayed onto certain surfaces.
The technology has been developed by a group of scientists, including Professor Jayanta Haldar, Sreyan Ghosh, and Riya Mukherjee. It has already shown positive lab results when tested against the influenza virus, reports Times of India.
“Significantly, our coating showed antiviral activity against the notorious influenza virus with 100% disablement within 30 minutes upon contact. The coated surfaces also worked against various drug-resistant bacteria and fungi pathogens such as methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and fluconazole resistant C. albicans spp,” said Halder.
He added that the compound is soluble in water as well as organic solvents, and that the solution of this compound can be easily coated or used.
“The significance of this approach was the easy coating procedure, which eliminates the limitations of requiring expert personnel and sophisticated machinery. The cotton substrates coated with the compound showed complete disabling of bacteria. The coating also works against pathogens such as MRSA in 30-45 minutes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an antimicrobial coating, which could disable all of bacteria, fungi, and influenza virus,” he said.
Since the coating has shown it can completely disable influenza virus, the scientists are hoping that it has a similar effect on the Covid-19 strain of the coronavirus, which is currently wreaking havoc around the world.
The coronavirus outbreak has so far infected 937,167 people and killed 47,267 people globally, according to Worldometer.
