Table 1.

Representative antiviral nanoagents in published papers.

ENMs	Size	Surface modification / antiviral agent	Virusa	Study	Mechanism		Ref.
Ag NPs	16 nm	Polyvinylpyrrolidone / bovine serum albumin	HIV-1	In vitro	Virus or host cell surface receptor interactions	Binding to gp120 glycoprotein knobs on HIV-1 surface.	[12]
	50 nm		HBV	In vitro		Impeding the transcription of viral RNA by directly binding to HBV DNA.	[14]
GO			HSV-1	In vitro		Mimicking the cell surface receptor heparan sulfate to inhibit HSV binding to host cells.	[16]
Au NPs	2.3 nm	Ligands containing undecane sulfonic acid	HSV, HPV, RSV, DENV	In vivo, in vitro		Au NPs coated with undecane sulfonic acid mimicking the heparin sulfate proteoglycans to prevent the virus–cell interaction.	[18]
PLGA NPs	395 nm	Acyclovir	HSV	In vivo, in vitro	Antiviral agent delivery	PLGA NPs loaded with acyclovir for oral delivery.	[20]
	180 nm	3D8 scFv antibody	VSV	In vivo, in vitro		Cytoplasmic delivery of a monoclonal antibody with nucleic acid-hydrolyzing activity.	[34]
Liposome	150 nm	Suramin	NV	In vitro		Delivery the suramin-loaded liposome to inhibit NV polymerases.	[22]
	124 nm	Stearylamine	BV, HSV-1	In intro		Cationic liposomes with incorporated stearylamine inhibit viral infectivity.	[35]
Au NPs	5, 50, 100 nm	Thiol cysteamine	HCV	In vivo, in vitro	Nanovaccines	DNA segment specific to HCV core gene conjugated on the AuNPs to simulate the immune response.	[27]
	2 2, 5, 8, 12, 17, 37, 50 nm	FMDV peptide	FMDV	In vivo, in vitro		C-terminus of the FMDV peptide conjugated on AuNPs to induce the magnitude of the immune response.	[36]
	20,40 nm	WNV envelope E protein	WNV	In vivo, in vitro		WNV envelope E protein coated AuNPs enhance the immune response.	[37]
	20, 40, 80 nm	ED III protein	DENV	In vivo, in vitro		Serotype 2 of DENV as dengue subunit to functionalize Au NPs to induce a high level of antibody to neutralizing DENV.	[38]

^aDENV: dengue virus; VSV: vesicular stomatitis virus; BV: baculovirus; ED III: domain III of envelope glycoprotein derived from serotype 2 of dengue virus. RANTES: regulated upon activation, normal T expressed and secreted.