Toxicity of chemical-based hand sanitizers on children and the development of natural alternatives: a computational approach

Abstract

The unintended exposure of children to hand sanitizers poses a high risk of potentially fatal complications. Skin irritation, dryness, cracking, peeling, hypoglycemia, apnea, and acidosis are examples of unintended consequences of hand sanitizer. The sanitizer reportedly kills normal microbial flora on hands, which usually promotes innate immunity among children under 12. Children are more susceptible to the toxicity associated with the chemical constituents of marketed chemical-based hand sanitizers; however, the studies to develop sanitizer formulations for children are rudimentary. The adverse events limit the use of hand sanitizers specifically in children because of their sensitive and delicate skin. Additionally, it is reported that many chemical-based hand sanitizer formulations, especially alcohol-based ones may also contain contaminants like methanol, acetaldehyde, benzene, isopropanol, and ethyl-acetate. These contaminants are found to be hazardous to human health exhibiting toxicity on ingestion, inhalation, or dermal exposure, especially in children. Therefore, it is important to design novel, innovative, safer sanitizer formulations for children. The study aims to discuss the toxic contaminants in chemical-based sanitizer formulations and propose a design for novel herbal formulations with minimal toxicity and adverse effects, especially for children. The review focuses on ADMET analysis of the common contaminants in hand sanitizers, molecular docking, Lipinski’s rule of five analysis, and molecular simulation studies to analyze the efficacy of interaction with the receptor leading to anti-microbial activity and drug-likeness of the compound. The in silico methods can effectively validate the potential efficacy of novel formulations of hand sanitizers designed for children as an efficient alternative to chemical-based sanitizers with greater efficacy and the absence of toxic contaminants.

Keywords:

• Hand hygiene
• children
• sanitizers
• contaminants
• toxicity
• novel formulation
• adverse effects
• docking
• molecular simulation

Acknowledgements

The authors want to express their sincere gratitude to Dr. G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, VIT University, Vellore, for his constant support and encouragement. The authors sincerely appreciate the insightful comments and suggestions received from the peer-reviewers of the paper. Their valuable comments have contributed to improving the quality of the manuscript, for which we are grateful. We would also like to acknowledge ICMR for awarding JRF.

Declaration of interest

The conclusions in this manuscript have been derived by the authors. The authors have no financial interest in the results and interpretations of this manuscript. The authors are not involved in and do not anticipate involvement in any legal, regulatory, or advocacy proceedings related to the contents of the paper. No funding has been received by the authors for the conduct of the study.

Data availability statement

Data are available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, https://www.rcsb.org/