A new marine-derived biomaterial that destroys calcium alginate, SARS-CoV-2, which is obtained from brown algae and can be used in the production of textiles, paper, biodegradable packaging, food, cosmetics or biomedicine, among other uses, has been discovered through research. Staff from Spain.

The Biomaterials and Bioengineering Laboratory of the Catholic University of Valencia (UCV), led by Professor Ángel Serrano, has published its research in the international scientific journal. polymersAccording to a university statement, which states that calcium alginate is non-toxic and even edible because it is an ingredient used by many chefs in high cuisine.

Its validity for health technology manufacturing was confirmed both at the facilities of UCV’s Faculty of Veterinary and Experimental Sciences and at the facilities of Kyoto University (Japan), where it was validated against the delta variant of SARS-CoV. – two.

Alginates are hydrophilic biopolymers with a wide variety of biomedical applications due to their excellent chemical, physical and biological properties, and their properties were already known before the pandemic and were approved for medical use; Their biodegradable and biocompatible nature has made them promising materials in the fight against virus transmission.

After several projects with alginates, the research group led by Serrano has hereby studied the cytotoxicity and antiviral activity of calcium alginate in film form against enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

The results showed that these films prepared by solvent evaporation technique followed by crosslinking with calcium cations are biocompatible in human keratinocytes and are able to inactivate enveloped viruses such as bacteriophage phi 6 and the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.

According to sources, UCV predoctoral fellow Alba Cano and Kyoto University researchers Rina Hashimoto and Kazuo Takayama participated in this study.