Los quitosanos y la lucha contra los coronavirus

Abstract

Chitosans and the fight against the coronaviruses. This work presents a broad vision of the potential applications that chi-tosan biopolymer, and its derivatives, may has in each of the strategies currently developed in the fight against the virus associ-ated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Summary information about the most important characteristics of the coronavirus family and their main associated human diseases is presented. The main characteristics (harmlessness, biocompatibility, biodegrada-bility, muco-adhesiveness, hemostatic, thickener, mucosal permeation, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, etc.) that make chitosan and its derivatives excellent candidates for these purposes are exposed. Finally, some selected examples of the studies carried out with these materials such as adjuvants in the administration of vaccines (especially intranasal route), antiviral agents, con-trol of cytokine storm, and passive antigen therapy, are shown. This work clearly shows the impressive potential of these mate-rials in the fight against these pathogens.