Photo-catalyzed TiO2 inactivates pathogenic viruses by attacking viral genome

Yimin Tong; Gansheng Shi; Gaowei Hu; Xiaoyou Hu; Lin Han; Xiaofeng Xie; Yongfen Xu; Rong Zhang; Jing Sun; Jin Zhong

doi:10.1016/j.cej.2021.128788

Photo-catalyzed TiO₂ inactivates pathogenic viruses by attacking viral genome

Chem Eng J. 2021 Jun 15:414:128788. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.128788. Epub 2021 Feb 3.

Authors

Yimin Tong¹, Gansheng Shi², Gaowei Hu³, Xiaoyou Hu^{1

4}, Lin Han^{1

5}, Xiaofeng Xie², Yongfen Xu¹, Rong Zhang³, Jing Sun², Jin Zhong^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
² The State Key Lab of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁵ ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.

Abstract

Previous observations have been reported that viruses were inactivated using strong irradiation. Here, new evidence was disclosed by studying the effects of nanosized TiO₂ on viral pathogens under a low irradiation condition (0.4 mW/cm² at UVA band) that mimics the field setting. We showed that photo-activated TiO₂ efficiently inhibits hepatitis C virus infection, and weak indoor light with intensity of 0.6 mW/cm² at broad-spectrum wavelength and around 0.15 mW/cm² of UVA band also lead to partial inhibition. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that hydroxyl radicals produced by photo-activated TiO₂ do not destroy virion structure and contents, but attack viral RNA genome, thus inactivating the virus. Furthermore, we showed that photo-activated TiO₂ inactivates a broad range of human viral pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, we showed that photo-catalyzed nanosized TiO₂ inactivates pathogenic viruses, paving a way to its field application in control of viral infectious diseases.

Keywords: Inactivate; Pathogenic viruses; Photocatalyst; TiO2.