Biocompatible nanocarriers an emerging platform for augmenting the antiviral attributes of bioactive polyphenols: A review

Viral diseases are currently one of the major infections that have attracted a lot of scientific attentions. Viruses are the infectious pathogenic agents that affect humans, animals and plants. Antiviral drugs control infection either by targeting the virus directly or by targeting virus host cell factors. There are still number of viral infections detected in the world that is incurable. Though, the discovery of new antiviral drugs requires number of clinical trials and may causes undesirable side effects. Therefore, naturally occurring polyphenols due to their versatile functionalities include anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer, antihypertensive and antiallergic has been explored extensively and becomes centre of attraction against viral infections. Among various antiviral treatment strategies, polyphenolic assisted nanodelivery systems have shown improved antiviral therapeutic effect with minimum undesirable side effects. Their nanocarriers also offer the opportunity for co-delivery by encapsulation of two or more polyphenolic components for the treatment of multiple disease organisms. In this review article, we summarize the antiviral potential, poor bioavailability and synergistic effect of naturally occurring polyphenols curcumin, quercetin, resveratrol, myricitin, Epicatechin, rosemerinic acid etc. and designed how their therapeutic potential may be more effective using biocompatible nanocarriers for living systems.