Simulated sunlight decreases the viability of SARS-CoV-2 in mucus

Angela Sloan, Todd Cutts, Bryan D. Griffin, Samantha Kasloff, Zachary Schiffman, Mable Chan, Jonathan Audet, Anders Leung, Darwyn Kobasa, Derek R. Stein, David Safronetz, Guillaume Poliquin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread into a pandemic since its emergence in Wuhan, China in December of 2019. This has been facilitated by its high transmissibility within the human population and its ability to remain viable on inanimate surfaces for an extended period. To address the latter, we examined the effect of simulated sunlight on the viability of SARS-CoV-2 spiked into tissue culture medium or mucus. The study revealed that inactivation took 37 minutes in medium and 107 minutes in mucus. These times-to-inactivation were unexpected since they are longer than have been observed in other studies. From this work, we demonstrate that sunlight represents an effective decontamination method but the speed of decontamination is variable based on the underlying matrix. This information has an important impact on the development of infection prevention and control protocols to reduce the spread of this deadly pathogen.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere0253068
JournalPloS one
Volume16
Issue number6 June
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2021
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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