Photocatalyst under visible light irradiation inactivates SARS-CoV-2 on an abiotic surface

  1. Masashi Uema
  2. Kenzo Yonemitsu
  3. Yoshika Momose
  4. Yoshikazu Ishii
  5. Kazuhiro Tateda
  6. Takao Inoue
  7. Hiroshi Asakura

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Abstract

There is a worldwide attempt to develop prevention strategies against SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Here we examined the effectiveness of visible light-responsive photocatalyst RENECAT™ on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 under different temperatures and exposure durations. The viral activation on the photocatalyst-coated glass slides decreased from 5.93±0.38 logTCID 50 /ml to 3.05±0.25 logTCID 50 /ml after exposure to visible light irradiation for 6h at 20°C. On the other hand, lighting without the photocatalyst, or the photocatalyst-coat without lighting retained viral stability. Immunoblotting and electron microscopic analyses showed the reduced amounts of spike protein on the viral surface after the photocatalyst treatment. Our data suggest a possible implication of the photocatalyst on the decontamination of the SARS-CoV-2 in indoor environments, thereby preventing indirect viral spread.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.01.364364: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Rabbit anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody (#ab273074, Abeam, Cambridge, UK) and rabbit anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein antibody (#GT×135357, GeneTex, Alton Pkwy Irvine, CA, USA) were used as primary antibodies.
    anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein
    suggested: None
    anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein
    suggested: (Proteintech Cat# 67666-2-Ig, RRID:AB_2882863)
    Goat HRP-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG (#4090-05, Southern biotech, Birmingham, AL, USA) was used as the secondary antibody.
    anti-rabbit IgG
    suggested: (SouthernBiotech Cat# 4090-05, RRID:AB_2650510)
    HRP-conjugated anti-ß-actin antibody (#HRP-60008, Proteintech, Rosemont, IL, USA) was used to detect residual actin from Vero E6/TMPRSS2 cell during preparation of viral suspension.
    anti-ß-actin
    suggested: (RayBiotech Cat# 168-10656, RRID:AB_2885189)
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    HRP-conjugated anti-ß-actin antibody (#HRP-60008, Proteintech, Rosemont, IL, USA) was used to detect residual actin from Vero E6/TMPRSS2 cell during preparation of viral suspension.
    Vero E6/TMPRSS2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Virus and cell line: The SARS-CoV-2 JPN/TY/WK-521 strain was propagated in Vero E6/TMPRSS2 cell line (JCRB 1819) [8] cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) (Wako Pure Chemicals, Tokyo, Japan) and supplemented with 5% heat inactivated FBS (SAFC Biosciences, Lenexa, KS, USA) at 37°C in a humidified CO2 incubator. 2.2. Photocatalyst: In this study, we used the visible light responsive photocatalyst, RENECAT™ (Toshiba Materials, Kanagawa, Japan), which was mainly composed of tungsten trioxide (WO3).
    SAFC
    suggested: (SAFC, RRID:SCR_008554)
    The protein signals were detected with the ECL detection system (Cytiva, Marlborough, MA, USA) and images were acquired with ImageQuant LAS500system (Cytiva) accordingly. 2.5.
    ImageQuant
    suggested: (ImageQuant, RRID:SCR_014246)
    Statistical analysis: One-way ANOVA test was performed with JMP 15.1 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) to analyze whether there is a significant difference in the virucidal activity between the groups.
    SAS Institute
    suggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.01.364364 on bioRxiv