Inhibitory effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles and fibrillar chitosan‐zinc oxide nanostructures against herpes simplex virus infection

Although zinc ions have a strong antiviral impact against viral infections, they have a high level of toxicity in cell culture and in animal models. In the current work, ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and fibrillar chitosan‐ZnO nanostructures (CS‐ZnO NSs) were synthesized in order to evaluate their cytotoxicity and inhibitory impact against HSV (herpes simplex virus) replication in vitro using the MTT, plaque, and Real‐time PCR methods. Also, different characterization approaches such as FE‐SEM, XRD, FTIR and fluorescence microscope were used to evaluate prepared NPs. The findings revealed that CS‐ZnO NSs exhibit negligible cytotoxicity in cells, whereas ZnO NPs were exceedingly harmful at high doses. Also, CS‐ZnO NSs could considerably internalize cells and reduce virus titration in HSV‐infected cells. Furthermore, their inhibitory effect against HSV replication was quite effective, which may be more related to the antiviral activity of chitosan and ZnO. In conclusion, the new fibrillar chitosan‐ZnO NS was prepared with the least toxicity for host cells. In this study, a fibrillar chitosan‐ZnO (NF‐CS‐ZnO) nano‐hybrid is developed by antiviral activity against the Herpes simplex virus.