Efficient inhibition of human influenza a virus by oligonucleotides electrostatically fixed on polylysine-containing TiO2 nanoparticles

Antiviral activity of TiO2 * PL * DNA nanobiocomposites was studied on the MDCK cell culture infected with influenza A virus (subtype H3N2). DNA fragments in the nanocomposites are electrostatically bound to titanium dioxide nanoparticles pre-covered with polylysine. It was shown that TiO2 * PL * DNA(v3') nanocomposite bearing the DNA(v3') fragment targeted to the 3'-end of the noncoding region of segment 5 of viral RNA specifically inhibited the virus reproduction with the efficiency of 99.8 and 99.9% (or by factors of~400 and 1000) at a low concentration of DNA(v3') in nanocomposite (0.1 and 0.2 µM, respectively). The TiO2 * PL * DNA(r) nanocomposite containing oligonucleotide noncomplementary to viral RNA or the oligonucleotide unbound to the nanoparticles show very low antiviral activity (inhibition by factors of~3.5 and 1.3, respectively).