Covid-19 pandemic warns us that the current therapeutic options are not effective enough in combating such infectious diseases. In this post-antibiotic era, we do believe that our current antibiotic and antiviral drugs were strong enough to control all kinds of diseases. At the present time, viruses tend to evolve (viral evolution) much faster as compared to the development of science and technology.

To the human immune system, viruses nowadays become smarter, stronger and more durable, around the globe, especially in the polluted environments. Given the urgency and high-risk tendency of the Covid-19 outbreak, new approaches and innovative technologies should be applied to cure such kind of new outbreak. In addition to the current antiviral agents, 'virus against virus" strategy has been proposed as potential solution against Covid-19. This new approach refers to the use a genetically engineered virus to infect and kill the SARS-CoV2 [1].

Since Coronavirus is about 120 nanometers in diameter [2], in practice the conventional materials and technologies might be limited or ineffective to overcome this life-threatening pathogen. Therefore, new nanotechnology-based broad-spectrum antiviral agents and vaccines are urgently needed to deal with these nanosized entities. Besides, recently we reported the nanotoxicity and antibacterial/antiviral applications of nanomaterials [3]. As reported, nanoparticles would have the superior antibacterial activity over the traditional molecular antibiotics, especially for the antibiotic resistant bacteria.

In addition, a smart drug and delivery system usually possesses unique characteristics such as (a) a facile synthesis process, (b) high biocompatibility, (c) stability in body fluid, (d) controllable drug loading, (e) stimuli responsive drug release, (f) targeted delivery, (g) Bacteria/virus‐responsive multifunctional carriers/capsules/containers [4]… Thus, nanotechnology is the key for development of these smart drugs (nanotechnology-enabled smart drugs). On the other hand, nanotechnology based sensors can be used effecitively for virus detection [5, 6]

In the near future, new (smart) vaccines should be available and ready to use immediately at the beginning of any pandemic, instead of waiting for 6 or 12 months (as usual). It is worth noting that the mathematical models indicated that pandemic influ-enza could spread globally only within 6 months. As expected, these (new) smart vaccines would also refer to the All-in-one vaccine (~5,000 virus species have been investigated [7]). They could be programmable and produced by using smart manufacturing technology [8] in many regions/countries.

Currently, some key platforms and innovative technologies could be integrated to formulate the future/smart drugs and vaccines, as follows:

• Nanovaccines (nanotechnology-based vaccines) [9, 10]

• Nanoparticles-based platforms (virosomes, virus-like nanoparticles…) [11- 13]

• Smart nanocontainers/nanocarriers for drug/gene/protein delivery (virosomes as an antigen carrier system) [4]

• mRNA platform [14, 15]

• RNAs nanoencapsulation (RNAs encapsulated in smart nanocarriers) [16, 17]

• Artificial blood (artificial blood platform) [18]

• Nanoscale artificial antigen-presenting cells [19, 20]

• Stem cell nanotechnology: from regenerative medicine to smart vaccine [21]

However, these as-proposed new vaccines would not be possible without the international collaboration of all researchers worldwide.

1. Nguyen, T.M., Zhang, Y. and Pandolfi, P.P. Virus against virus: a potential treatment for 2019-nCov (SARS-CoV-2) and other RNA viruses. Cell Res 30, 189–190 (2020).

2. Samad Ghaffari, Neda Roshanravan, Helda Tutunchi, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Mahboub Pouraghaei, Behnam Kafil, Oleoylethanolamide, A Bioactive Lipid Amide, as A Promising Treatment Strategy for Coronavirus/COVID-19, Archives of Medical Research, Volume 51, Issue 5, 2020, Pages 464-467,

3. Nanotoxicity: Prevention, and antibacterial applications of nanomaterials, Editors: Susai Rajendran, Anita Mukherjee, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Chandraiah Godugu, Ritesh K Shukla, March 2020, Elsevier, USA ISBN: 978-0-12-819943-53. https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128199435/nanotoxicity

4. Smart Nanocontainers: Fundamentals and Emerging Applications, Editors: Phuong Nguyen-Tri, Trong-On Do and Tuan Anh Nguyen, March 2019, Elsevier, USA (ISBN : 978-0-12-816770-0).

5. Jiancheng Yang, Patrick Carey, Fan Ren, Brian C. Lobo, Michael Gebhard, Marino E. Leon, Jenshan Lin, S.J. Pearton, Chapter 24 - Nanosensor networks for health-care applications, Editor(s): Baoguo Han, Vijay K. Tomer, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Ali Farmani, Pradeep Kumar Singh, In: Nanosensors for Smart Cities, Elsevier, 2020, Pages 405-417,ISBN 9780128198704, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819870-4.00023-2.

6. Yeşeren Saylan, Adil Denizli, Chapter 30 - Virus detection using nanosensors, Editor(s): Baoguo Han, Vijay K. Tomer, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Ali Farmani, Pradeep Kumar Singh, In: Nanosensors for Smart Cities, Elsevier, 2020, Pages 501-511,ISBN 9780128198704, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819870-4.00038-4.

7. M. Breitbart and F. Rohwer. 2005. Here a virus, there a virus, everywhere the same virus?, Trends Microbiol., vol. 1, issue 6, pp 278-284.

8. Nanosensors for smart manufacturing, Editors: Sabu Thomas, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Ali Farmani, Mazaher Ahmadi, Ghulam Yasin, June 2021, Elsevier, USA. ISBN : 978-0-12-823358-0.https://www.elsevier.com/books/nanosensors-for-smart-manufacturing/thomas/978-0-12-823358-0

9. Nandedkar, T.D. Nanovaccines: recent developments in vaccination. J Biosci 34, 995–1003 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-009-0114-3

10. Sergio Rosales-Mendoza and Omar González-Ortega, Nanovaccines: An Innovative Technology to Fight Human and Animal Diseases, Springer Nature Switzerland, 2019.

11. Alessandro Parodi, Roberto Molinaro, Manuela Sushnitha, Michael Evangelopoulos, Jonathan O. Martinez, Noemi Arrighetti, Claudia Corbo, Ennio Tasciotti, Bio-inspired engineering of cell- and virus-like nanoparticles for drug delivery, Biomaterials, Volume 147, 2017, Pages 155-168,

12. Qian C, Liu X, Xu Q, Wang Z, Chen J, Li T, Zheng Q, Yu H, Gu Y, Li S, Xia N. Recent Progress on the Versatility of Virus-Like Particles. Vaccines. 2020; 8(1):139. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8010139

13. Christian Moser, Matthias Müller, Matthias D Kaeser, Ulrike Weydemann & Mario Amacker (2013) Influenza virosomes as vaccine adjuvant and carrier system, Expert Review of Vaccines, 12:7, 779-791, Pardi, N., Hogan, M., Porter, F. et al. mRNA vaccines — a new era in vaccinology. Nat Rev Drug Discov 17, 261–279 (2018).

14. Versteeg L, Almutairi MM, Hotez PJ, Pollet J. Enlisting the mRNA Vaccine Platform to Combat Parasitic Infections. Vaccines. 2019; 7(4):122.

15. Jasdave S. Chahal, Omar F. Khan, Christopher L. Cooper, Justine S. McPartlan, Jonathan K. Tsosie, Lucas D. Tilley, Saima M. Sidik, Sebastian Lourido, Robert Langer, Sina Bavari, Hidde L. Ploegh, Daniel G. Anderson,Dendrimer-RNA nanoparticles generate protective immunity against lethal Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii challenges with a single dose, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2016, 113 (29) E4133-E4142;

16. Prashant Kesharwani, Virendra Gajbhiye, Narendra Kumar Jain, A review of nanocarriers for the delivery of small interfering RNA, Biomaterials, Volume 33, Issue 29, 2012, Pages 7138-7150,

17. Nanotechnology for hematology, blood transfusion and artificial blood. Editors: Adil Denizli, Tuan Anh Nguyen, Mariappan Rajan, Mohammad Feroz Alam, Khaliqur Rahman, September 2021, Elsevier, USA. ISBN: 9780128239711.

18. Karlo Perica, Andrés De León Medero, Malarvizhi Durai, Yen Ling Chiu, Joan Glick Bieler, Leah Sibener, Michaela Niemöller, Mario Assenmacher, Anne Richter, Michael Edidin, Mathias Oelke, Jonathan Schneck, Nanoscale artificial antigen presenting cells for T cell immunotherapy, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, Volume 10, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 119-129, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nano.2013.06.015.

19. Karlo Perica, Joan Glick Bieler, Christian Schütz, Juan Carlos Varela, Jacqueline Douglass, Andrew Skora, Yen Ling Chiu, Mathias Oelke, Kenneth Kinzler, Shibin Zhou, Bert Vogelstein, and Jonathan P. Schneck, Enrichment and Expansion with Nanoscale Artificial Antigen Presenting Cells for Adoptive Immunotherapy, ACS Nano 2015 9 (7), 6861-6871. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b02829

20. Wang, Z., Ruan, J. & Cui, D. Advances and Prospect of Nanotechnology in Stem Cells. Nanoscale Res Lett 4, 593 (2009).

21. Arora, P., Sindhu, A., Dilbaghi, N., Chaudhury, A., Rajakumar, G. and Rahuman, A.A. (2012), Nano‐regenerative medicine towards clinical outcome of stem cell and tissue engineering in humans. J. Cell. Mol. Med., 16: 1991-2000.