Cellulosic copper nanoparticles and a hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectant protect Vero E6 cells against infection by viral pseudotyped particles expressing SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV Spike protein

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Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by human coronaviruses (HuCoV) that include SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Although their primary mode of transmission is through contaminated respiratory droplets from infected carriers, the deposition of expelled virus particles onto surface and fomites could contribute to viral transmission. Here, we use replication-deficient murine leukemia virus (MLV) pseudoviral particles expressing SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, or MERS-CoV Spike (S) protein on their surface. These surrogates of native coronavirus counterparts serve as a model to analyze the S-mediated entry into target cells. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) nanofibers that are combined with copper (Cu) exhibit strong antimicrobial properties. S-pseudovirions that are exposed to CMC-Cu nanoparticles (30 s) display a dramatic reduction in their ability to infect target Vero E6 cells, with ∼97% less infectivity as compared to untreated pseudovirions. In contrast, addition of the Cu chelator tetrathiomolybdate protects S- pseudovirions from CMC-Cu-mediated inactivation. When S-pseudovirions were treated with a hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectant (denoted Saber TM ) used at 1:16 dilution, their infectivity was dramatically reduced by ∼98%. However, the combined use of Saber TM and CMC-Cu is the most effective approach to restrict infectivity of SARS-CoV-2-S, SARS-CoV-S, and MERS-CoV-S pseudovirions in Vero E6 cell assays. Together, these results show that cellulosic Cu nanoparticles enhance the effectiveness of diluted Saber TM sanitizer, setting up an improved strategy to lower the risk of surface- and fomite-mediated transmission of enveloped respiratory viruses.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.22.485373: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomization47 Reverse transcription reactions were performed in a 20-µl reaction mixture that contained the specified amount of RNA transcripts produced in vitro or 1 µg of RNA extracted from either HEK-293T cells or S- pseudovirus preparations, 2 µl of random primer mix (60 µM; 25 µM oligo(dT) and 35 µM random hexamers), 2 µl 10X RT buffer, 1 µl dNTP mix (10mM) (Thermo Fisher - Invitrogen), 0.2 µl RNase inhibitor (40 U/µl), and 0.2 µl MMuLV RT (200 U/µl).
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    After electrophoresis, samples were analyzed by …