How to validate UV-C based air cleaners using viruses containing aerosols in a test room.

IF 3.2 3区生物学 Q2 BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY

Journal of Applied Microbiology Pub Date : 2024-11-14 DOI:10.1093/jambio/lxae287

B Kramer, D Warschat, A Meepool, P Muranyi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aims: UV-C based air cleaners may reduce the transmission of infectious diseases. However, microbiological validation is necessary to quantify their efficiency. In this study, the stability of aerosolized bacteriophages for validation purposes was investigated in a test room, before an UV-C based air cleaner was exemplarily evaluated regarding the inactivation of airborne bacteriophages.

Methods and results: The bacteriophage Phi6 was selected as virus surrogate and aerosolized in a room of 30 m³ volume. The recovery of infectious bacteriophages was first analyzed under variation of the relative humidity (20-55% RH) and sampling time. The aerosol studies showed that a low humidity between 20% RH and 30% RH provides a high and stable recovery of bacteriophages Phi6 over 1 h. However, with increasing humidity, the number of infectious airborne bacteriophages Phi6 decreased significantly. At 50% RH, the recovery of Phi6 was 4 orders of magnitude lower compared to 20% RH. The validation of an UV-C based air cleaner was then demonstrated in the test room whereat the decline of infectious airborne bacteriophages was recorded over time. The non-enveloped bacteriophage MS2 was used as a reference. The validation results were significantly different for Phi6 when the humidity in the test room was either 40% RH or 30% RH whereas comparable results were obtained for MS2 at both humidities.

Conclusion: A rising humidity in the test room caused a significant decline in the recovery of infectious airborne bacteriophages Phi6. The result of a quantitative validation of UV-C based air cleaners may therefore be affected by the respective humidity.

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如何在试验室中使用含有病毒的气溶胶验证基于紫外线-C 的空气净化器。

目的：基于紫外线-C 的空气净化器可减少传染病的传播。然而，为了量化其效率，有必要进行微生物验证。在这项研究中，在对基于紫外线-C 的空气净化器进行灭活空气中噬菌体的示范性评估之前，先在试验室中对用于验证目的的气溶胶噬菌体的稳定性进行了调查：方法：选择噬菌体 Phi6 作为病毒替代物，在 30 立方米的房间内进行气溶胶喷雾。首先分析了在相对湿度（20%-55% RH）和采样时间变化的情况下感染性噬菌体的回收率。气溶胶研究表明，相对湿度在 20% 至 30% 之间时，噬菌体 Phi6 在 1 小时内的回收率高且稳定。相对湿度为 50%时，Phi6 的回收率比相对湿度为 20%时低 4 个数量级。随后，在测试室中对基于紫外线-C 的空气净化器进行了验证，并记录了空气中感染性噬菌体随时间推移而减少的情况。无包膜噬菌体 MS2 被用作参照物。当测试室的湿度为 40% 相对湿度或 30% 相对湿度时，Phi6 的验证结果有明显差异，而 MS2 在这两种湿度下的验证结果相当：结论：测试室湿度升高会导致传染性空气噬菌体 Phi6 的回收率显著下降。因此，基于 UV-C 的空气净化器的定量验证结果可能会受到相应湿度的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Applied Microbiology 生物-生物工程与应用微生物

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.50%

发文量

427

审稿时长

2.7 months

期刊介绍： Journal of & Letters in Applied Microbiology are two of the flagship research journals of the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM). For more than 75 years they have been publishing top quality research and reviews in the broad field of applied microbiology. The journals are provided to all SfAM members as well as having a global online readership totalling more than 500,000 downloads per year in more than 200 countries. Submitting authors can expect fast decision and publication times, averaging 33 days to first decision and 34 days from acceptance to online publication. There are no page charges.