Prof. Chun-Kwan Park of Global Biomedical Engineering, Developed Coronavirus Severe Patients and Sepsis Control Nano Treatment 

[Image 1] Photos of researchers – From the top-left, Chun-kwan Park (SKKU), Won-hwa Lee (Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology) 

From the bottom-left, Jun-hong Ahn (Yeungnam University), Hee-ho Park (Kangwon University), Woo-ram Park (Catholic University)

Prof. Chun-kwan Park’s research team found a biomarker that can screen the severity of patients with COVID-19 and sepsis and announced that they developed a nanomaterial-base and general-purpose candidate treatment material with other researchers including Won-hwa Lee (Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology), Jun-hong Ahn (Yeungnam University), Hee-ho Park (Kangwon University), and Woo-ram Park (Catholic University).

Covid-19 infections not only cause hyperinflammatory disease, causing local and systemic tissue damage, but also complications such as severe progressive pneumonia, acute respiratory syndrome and sepsis in mild respiratory diseases.

However, vaccines against the coronavirus are under development, and treatments such as remdesivir are being used on a limited basis. Also, there is no biomarker to predict patients who are aggravated or killed by diseases.

In response, the researchers found a biomarker that can predict the severity of the disease using the blood of the COVID-19 patients and developed a biomedical-based nano treatment that can prevent death from complications of severe patients using biomarkers.

[Image 2] Diagram of bio-applied and melanin nanoparticles coated with DNase-I production

Patients with severe coronavirus show symptoms of acute dyspnea syndrome, especially severe lung tissue damage. In response, various immune cells in the blood, such as neutrophils, react immune to protect the host from virus infection, but if excessive, they become poison and attack normal cells. The process of apoptosis of cells due to abnormal activation of neutrophils is called neutrophil extracellular trap formation (NETosis) and the phenomenon of NETosis causes various complications such as acute respiratory syndrome and sepsis.

This study found that the NETosis-related factors in the blood of severe coronavirus patients are expressed very high compared to normal and mild patients, while the concentration of DNase-I in the body to suppress them is very low. It also developed a new concept nanoparticle that maintains the blood concentration of DNase-I in the body for a long-time using biomaterial-based nanotechnology to suppress many complications such as sepsis.

[Image3] Evaluation of the treatment effect of Melanin nanoparticlescoated with DNase-I in blood of severe coronavirus patient 

The research team produced nanoparticles that can be circulated for a long time in the body based on the excellent biocompatibility and adhesion characteristics of “melanin”, the main ingredient of squid ink. They also produced nanoparticles that have long-term therapeutic effects in the blood by attaching DNase-I, a biomolecule that decomposes DNA,the main ingredient of NETosis. 

In addition, the administrationof biocompatible melanin nanoparticles coated with DNase-I in severecoronavirus patient samples and septic animal models shows a significant difference from the administration of DNase-I alone, and it was confirmed that NETosis was inhibited to reduce overall inflammation and reduce mortality rate.

[Image 4] Evaluation of the treatment effect of melanin nanoparticles coated with DNase-I in sepsis animal models

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and National Research Foundation of Korea and the result was published in international journal, Advanced Science, online on October 20 (Tue).