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Expiratory Aerosol pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne Virus Inactivation
[Image: see text] Respiratory viruses, including influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, are transmitted by the airborne route. Air filtration and ventilation mechanically reduce the concentration of airborne viruses and are necessary tools for disease mitigation. However, they ignore the potential impact o...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Chemical Society
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835828/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36537693 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05777 |
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author | Luo, Beiping Schaub, Aline Glas, Irina Klein, Liviana K. David, Shannon C. Bluvshtein, Nir Violaki, Kalliopi Motos, Ghislain Pohl, Marie O. Hugentobler, Walter Nenes, Athanasios Krieger, Ulrich K. Stertz, Silke Peter, Thomas Kohn, Tamar |
author_facet | Luo, Beiping Schaub, Aline Glas, Irina Klein, Liviana K. David, Shannon C. Bluvshtein, Nir Violaki, Kalliopi Motos, Ghislain Pohl, Marie O. Hugentobler, Walter Nenes, Athanasios Krieger, Ulrich K. Stertz, Silke Peter, Thomas Kohn, Tamar |
author_sort | Luo, Beiping |
collection | PubMed |
description | [Image: see text] Respiratory viruses, including influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, are transmitted by the airborne route. Air filtration and ventilation mechanically reduce the concentration of airborne viruses and are necessary tools for disease mitigation. However, they ignore the potential impact of the chemical environment surrounding aerosolized viruses, which determines the aerosol pH. Atmospheric aerosol gravitates toward acidic pH, and enveloped viruses are prone to inactivation at strong acidity levels. Yet, the acidity of expiratory aerosol particles and its effect on airborne virus persistence have not been examined. Here, we combine pH-dependent inactivation rates of influenza A virus (IAV) and SARS-CoV-2 with microphysical properties of respiratory fluids using a biophysical aerosol model. We find that particles exhaled into indoor air (with relative humidity ≥ 50%) become mildly acidic (pH ∼ 4), rapidly inactivating IAV within minutes, whereas SARS-CoV-2 requires days. If indoor air is enriched with nonhazardous levels of nitric acid, aerosol pH drops by up to 2 units, decreasing 99%-inactivation times for both viruses in small aerosol particles to below 30 s. Conversely, unintentional removal of volatile acids from indoor air may elevate pH and prolong airborne virus persistence. The overlooked role of aerosol acidity has profound implications for virus transmission and mitigation strategies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9835828 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | American Chemical Society |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-98358282023-01-13 Expiratory Aerosol pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne Virus Inactivation Luo, Beiping Schaub, Aline Glas, Irina Klein, Liviana K. David, Shannon C. Bluvshtein, Nir Violaki, Kalliopi Motos, Ghislain Pohl, Marie O. Hugentobler, Walter Nenes, Athanasios Krieger, Ulrich K. Stertz, Silke Peter, Thomas Kohn, Tamar Environ Sci Technol [Image: see text] Respiratory viruses, including influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, are transmitted by the airborne route. Air filtration and ventilation mechanically reduce the concentration of airborne viruses and are necessary tools for disease mitigation. However, they ignore the potential impact of the chemical environment surrounding aerosolized viruses, which determines the aerosol pH. Atmospheric aerosol gravitates toward acidic pH, and enveloped viruses are prone to inactivation at strong acidity levels. Yet, the acidity of expiratory aerosol particles and its effect on airborne virus persistence have not been examined. Here, we combine pH-dependent inactivation rates of influenza A virus (IAV) and SARS-CoV-2 with microphysical properties of respiratory fluids using a biophysical aerosol model. We find that particles exhaled into indoor air (with relative humidity ≥ 50%) become mildly acidic (pH ∼ 4), rapidly inactivating IAV within minutes, whereas SARS-CoV-2 requires days. If indoor air is enriched with nonhazardous levels of nitric acid, aerosol pH drops by up to 2 units, decreasing 99%-inactivation times for both viruses in small aerosol particles to below 30 s. Conversely, unintentional removal of volatile acids from indoor air may elevate pH and prolong airborne virus persistence. The overlooked role of aerosol acidity has profound implications for virus transmission and mitigation strategies. American Chemical Society 2022-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9835828/ /pubmed/36537693 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05777 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Permits non-commercial access and re-use, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained; but does not permit creation of adaptations or other derivative works (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Luo, Beiping Schaub, Aline Glas, Irina Klein, Liviana K. David, Shannon C. Bluvshtein, Nir Violaki, Kalliopi Motos, Ghislain Pohl, Marie O. Hugentobler, Walter Nenes, Athanasios Krieger, Ulrich K. Stertz, Silke Peter, Thomas Kohn, Tamar Expiratory Aerosol pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne Virus Inactivation |
title | Expiratory Aerosol
pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne
Virus Inactivation |
title_full | Expiratory Aerosol
pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne
Virus Inactivation |
title_fullStr | Expiratory Aerosol
pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne
Virus Inactivation |
title_full_unstemmed | Expiratory Aerosol
pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne
Virus Inactivation |
title_short | Expiratory Aerosol
pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne
Virus Inactivation |
title_sort | expiratory aerosol
ph: the overlooked driver of airborne
virus inactivation |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9835828/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36537693 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05777 |
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