Physics

Nanotechnology

Enzyme

Cleave

Combinatorial chemistry

Virus

Chiral symmetry breaking

Biology

Gene

Biophysics

Chirality (physics)

Tobacco mosaic virus

Nanoparticle

Virology

Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

Chemistry

Materials science

Protease

Capsid

Quantum mechanics

Biochemistry

Quark

Nature Catalysis

Viral diseases of plants are associated with large health and economic costs. Antiviral agents developed for mammalian organisms have had limited success for plants, necessitating alternative strategies to address this biological and sustainability problem. Here we show that chiral 3 nm Cu1.96S nanoparticles can site-selectively cleave capsid in tobacco mosaic virus under sunlight. With d-penicillamine as surface ligands, the nanoparticles display high affinity to the Gln 99 to Ala 105 segment in the capsid via a network of supramolecular bonds and 3,000–10,000 times lower affinity to capsids of other viruses. Illumination with green light leads to polarization-dependent, protease-like hydrolysis of the amide bond between Asn 101 and Pro 102. Nanoparticles inhibited viral infectivity by 98.7% in protoplasts and 92.6% in plants while avoiding hypersensitive response and large environmental impact. These findings show that nanoparticles combining proteolytic activity due to metal ions and site selectivity due to nanoscale chirality can be used as effective antiviral agents.                                                                  Despite the potential of nanostructures as crop protection agents, antiviral pesticides remain essentially based on organic molecules. Now, the antiviral activity of chiral copper sulfide nanoparticles is demonstrated for the light-mediated inactivation of tobacco mosaic virus via selective protease-like hydrolysis.

Site-selective proteolytic cleavage of plant viruses by photoactive chiral nanoparticles