killing virus Archives - Amazing Health Advances

UV Radiation Kills Virus That Causes COVID-19 in Lab, Study Finds

AHA Publisher — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 07:00:07 +0000

Ohio State University via Newswise – COLUMBUS, Ohio – A specific wavelength of ultraviolet radiation killed more than 99.99% of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in laboratory tests, a new study has found. The results could offer an encouraging option for inactivating the virus that causes COVID-19 from surfaces or, potentially, from the air. It is the first study to demonstrate that specific doses of UV222, a relatively short wavelength of ultraviolet radiation, may be a feasible and safe approach to disinfecting COVID-19. The study appears on a preprint server and has not yet undergone a formal peer review by other scientists. “The special thing is that this wavelength is effectively absorbed by the SARS-CoV-2 genome and the proteins of the virus,” said Natalie Hull, lead author of the study and assistant professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering at The Ohio State University. “And because of that, it was likely able to damage the proteins that perpetuate the virus infection cycle. And we think that’s why this is so effective.” The findings mean that UV222 could be a safe way to disinfect spaces contaminated by COVID-19, the researchers said. “This is the first time anyone has done something with the real virus, and as best we can tell, this is a wavelength that’s safe for humans,” said Richard Robinson, co-author of the study and associate professor of microbial infection and immunity at Ohio State. “And so theoretically, this could be a way of decontaminating that would be safer for people, and would also kill the virus.” There are caveats to the study. The findings, while encouraging, are “a starting point,” Hull said. The researchers tested the effectiveness of UV to destroy SARS-CoV-2 in a liquid solution, which is usually a more difficult medium to disinfect than air. But the study did not test UV222’s ability to kill the virus in the air or on non-liquid surfaces, and any real-world solution to fighting the virus in spaces where people live, work or play must be effective in those spaces. An open room would include other factors not tested in this study, including varying temperatures, humidity and air flow, Hull said. She said the UV light destroys the proteins and nucleic acids that make up the virus, essentially disabling it. Destroying the proteins and nucleic acids makes it impossible for the virus to replicate and complete the cycles necessary to infect people. “It’s basically like scrambling a protein with heat,” Hull said. “You’re applying energy and it breaks the bonds to change the structure. And these cell processes responsible for replicating the genome and making more virus components or binding to the host cell don’t happen in the same way, so it halts the infection cycle.” The researchers knew that ultraviolet radiation could inactivate coronaviruses, a broad category of viruses that includes SARS-CoV-2. (The common cold, for example, is also a coronavirus; UV radiation has been shown to destroy it as well.) But most commercially available UV lamps emit rays that are long enough to penetrate skin, making them a potential cancer risk. And little information is known about how much UV radiation is necessary to kill SARS-CoV-2. UV222 is a shorter wavelength of ultraviolet radiation than the rays that reach people from the sun, and previous studies have shown that UV222 is not likely to cause skin cancer and other health problems associated with UV radiation. (The “222” refers to the size of the wavelength — 222 nanometers. These wavelengths from the sun are mostly consumed by Earth’s atmosphere before they reach us.) The study was performed on samples of the COVID-19-causing virus that were cultivated and reproduced in a special laboratory on Ohio State’s campus designed to manage biologically dangerous pathogens and viruses. The research team obtained the samples from the Biodefense and Emerging Infections Research Resources Repository, an arm of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Researchers directed UV222 at samples of the virus held in a liquid suspension, then tested to see how much of the virus was destroyed and how long the UV radiation took to destroy it. They tested times ranging from 15 seconds to 15 minutes. Robinson, who has studied tuberculosis and other lung pathogens and who is associate director of Ohio State’s Biosafety Level 3 lab where the tests were conducted, said he was overwhelmed by what they saw: A near-total destruction of the virus, after only a few minutes. “When we started these experiments last summer, it was at the time when nothing was working to stop COVID,” Robinson said. “And this was so rewarding, because immunologists were still unsure what to do and here was this thing where we could just zap the virus and see this immediate effect.” Hull and Robinson intend to continue testing UV222 in real-world conditions, and Hull said she is optimistic. “We found the virus is really wimpy when confronted with UV222,” she said. “And our findings are a conservative estimate – liquid is this nice place where the virus is much happier than in a room full of air. We don’t know for sure, but I think it’s reasonable to think it might work in the air, too. We need to do the experiments to find out for sure.” This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health.

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You Can Kill Covid with a Flick of a Switch, Study Shows

AHA Publisher — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 08:00:42 +0000

ISRAEL21c Staff via Israel21c – As the world continues to race toward a vaccine for Covid-19, new Israeli research shows that the humble light bulb could become a major player in the fight against the pandemic. Researchers have discovered that coronavirus can be killed quickly, efficiently and cheaply using ultraviolet light-emitting diodes, or UV LED lights. In a study recently published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology researchers found the optimal wavelength for killing the coronavirus is 267 nanometers. They also discovered that a wavelength of 286 nanometers is almost as efficient, requiring less than half a minute to destroy more than 99.9 percent of the coronaviruses – good news considering that 286 nm LED bulbs are much cheaper and more readily available, and could be installed in air conditioning and water systems. Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Hadas Mamane, who led the study, believes that the technology will soon be available for use. “The entire world is currently looking for effective solutions to disinfect the coronavirus,” she says. “The problem is that in order to disinfect a bus, train, sports hall or plane by chemical spraying, you need physical manpower, and in order for the spraying to be effective, you have to give the chemical time to act on the surface. “The disinfection systems based on LED bulbs, however, can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner, for example, and sterilize the air sucked in and then emitted into the room.” Mamane explains that it is quite simple to kill the coronavirus using LED bulbs that radiate ultraviolet light. “But no less important, we killed the viruses using cheaper and more readily available LED bulbs, which consume little energy and do not contain mercury like regular bulbs. Our research has commercial and societal implications, given the possibility of using such LED bulbs in all areas of our lives, safely and quickly.” Ultraviolet radiation is a common method for killing viruses and bacteria. Ultraviolet disinfecting bulbs can be found, for example, in home water purifiers. Earlier this year, scientists determined that applying ultraviolet light on the inside of ventilation systems in indoor spaces can quickly and efficiently deactivate both airborne and surface-deposited Covid-19. Despite the exciting discovery, this is not the time to string purple lights all over your home. “Of course, as always when it comes to ultraviolet radiation, it is important to make it clear to people that it is dangerous to try to use this method to disinfect surfaces inside homes,” Mamane warns. “You need to know how to design these systems and how to work with them so that you are not directly exposed to the light.” To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Researchers Create Air Filter That Can Kill the Coronavirus

AHA Publisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 07:00:07 +0000

University of Houston via EurekAlert – Researchers from the University of Houston, in collaboration with others, have designed a “catch and kill” air filter that can trap the virus responsible for COVID-19, killing it instantly. Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, collaborated with Monzer Hourani, CEO of Medistar, a Houston-based medical real estate development firm, and other researchers to design the filter, which is described in a paper published in Materials Today Physics. The researchers reported that virus tests at the Galveston National Laboratory found 99.8% of the novel SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was killed in a single pass through a filter made from commercially available nickel foam heated to 200 degrees Centigrade, or about 392 degrees Fahrenheit. It also killed 99.9% of the anthrax spores in testing at the national lab, which is run by the University of Texas Medical Branch. “This filter could be useful in airports and in airplanes, in office buildings, schools and cruise ships to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Ren, MD Anderson Chair Professor of Physics at UH and co-corresponding author for the paper. “Its ability to help control the spread of the virus could be very useful for society.” Medistar executives are is also proposing a desk-top model, capable of purifying the air in an office worker’s immediate surroundings, he said. Ren said the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH) was approached by Medistar on March 31, as the pandemic was spreading throughout the United States, for help in developing the concept of a virus-trapping air filter. Luo Yu of the UH Department of Physics and TcSUH along with Dr. Garrett K. Peel of Medistar and Dr. Faisal Cheema at the UH College of Medicine are co-first authors on the paper. The researchers knew the virus can remain in the air for about three hours, meaning a filter that could remove it quickly was a viable plan. With businesses reopening, controlling the spread in air conditioned spaces was urgent. And Medistar knew the virus can’t survive temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade, about 158 degrees Fahrenheit, so the researchers decided to use a heated filter. By making the filter temperature far hotter – about 200 C – they were able to kill the virus almost instantly. Ren suggested using nickel foam, saying it met several key requirements: It is porous, allowing the flow of air, and electrically conductive, which allowed it to be heated. It is also flexible. But nickel foam has low resistivity, making it difficult to raise the temperature high enough to quickly kill the virus. The researchers solved that problem by folding the foam, connecting multiple compartments with electrical wires to increase the resistance high enough to raise the temperature as high as 250 degrees C. By making the filter electrically heated, rather than heating it from an external source, the researchers said they minimized the amount of heat that escaped from the filter, allowing air conditioning to function with minimal strain. A prototype was built by a local workshop and first tested at Ren’s lab for the relationship between voltage/current and temperature; it then went to the Galveston lab to be tested for its ability to kill the virus. Ren said it satisfies the requirements for conventional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. “This novel biodefense indoor air protection technology offers the first-in-line prevention against environmentally mediated transmission of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and will be on the forefront of technologies available to combat the current pandemic and any future airborne biothreats in indoor environments,” Cheema said. Hourani and Peel have called for a phased roll-out of the device, “beginning with high-priority venues, where essential workers are at elevated risk of exposure (particularly schools, hospitals and health care facilities, as well as public transit environs such as airplanes).” That will both improve safety for frontline workers in essential industries and allow nonessential workers to return to public work spaces, they said. To read the original article click here.

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