Electrolyzed hypochlorous acid water exhibits potent disinfectant activity against various viruses through irreversible protein aggregation

Rahmi Dianty; Junki Hirano; Itsuki Anzai; Yuta Kanai; Tsuyoshi Hayashi; Masae Morimoto; Chikako Kataoka-Nakamura; Sakura Kobayashi; Kentaro Uemura; Chikako Ono; Tokiko Watanabe; Takeshi Kobayashi; Kosuke Murakami; Kenji Kikuchi; Kunimoto Hotta; Toshikazu Yoshikawa; Shuhei Taguwa; Yoshiharu Matsuura

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1284274

Electrolyzed hypochlorous acid water exhibits potent disinfectant activity against various viruses through irreversible protein aggregation

Front Microbiol. 2023 Oct 19:14:1284274. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1284274. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rahmi Dianty^{1

2}, Junki Hirano^{1

2}, Itsuki Anzai^{1

3}, Yuta Kanai^{1

4}, Tsuyoshi Hayashi⁵, Masae Morimoto⁶, Chikako Kataoka-Nakamura⁶, Sakura Kobayashi⁵, Kentaro Uemura^{1

2}, Chikako Ono^{1

2}, Tokiko Watanabe^{1

3

7}, Takeshi Kobayashi^{1

4

7}, Kosuke Murakami⁵, Kenji Kikuchi⁸, Kunimoto Hotta⁸, Toshikazu Yoshikawa⁸, Shuhei Taguwa^{1

2

7}, Yoshiharu Matsuura^{1

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Virus Control, Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
² Laboratory of Virus Control, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
³ Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
⁴ Laboratory of Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
⁵ Department of Virology II, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
⁶ Innovative Vaccine Research and Development Center, The Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
⁷ Center for Advanced Modalities and DDS, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
⁸ Louis Pasteur Center for Medical Research, Kyoto, Japan.

Abstract

It is essential to employ efficient measures to prevent the transmission of pathogenic agents during a pandemic. One such method involves using hypochlorous acid (HClO) solution. The oxidative properties of HClO water (HAW) can contribute to its ability to eliminate viral particles. Here, we examined a highly purified slightly acidic hypochlorous acid water (Hp-SA-HAW) obtained from the reverse osmosis membrane treatment of an electrolytically-generated SA-HAW for its anti-viral activity and mode of action on viral proteins. Hp-SA-HAW exhibited broad-spectrum antiviral effects against various viruses, including adenovirus, hepatitis B virus, Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and rotavirus. Additionally, Hp-SA-HAW treatment dose-dependently resulted in irreversibly aggregated multimers of the JEV envelope and capsid proteins. However, Hp-SA-HAW treatment had no discernible effect on viral RNA, indicating that Hp-SA-HAW acts against amino acids rather than nucleic acids. Furthermore, Hp-SA-HAW substantially reduced the infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including the ancestral variant and other multiple variants. Hp-SA-HAW treatment induced the aggregation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike and nuclear proteins and disrupted the binding of the purified spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 to human ACE2. This study demonstrates that the broad-spectrum virucidal activity of highly purified HClO is attributed to viral protein aggregation of virion via protein oxidation.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; hypochlorous acid; oxidation; protein aggregation; virucide.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was partly supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (KAKENHI; grant numbers JP21K20760 and JP22H02876), the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED; grant number JP21fk0108495), the SENSHIN Medical Research Foundation, and Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST; Moonshot R&D; JPMJMS2025). This research was conducted as part of the All-Osaka U Research in “The Nippon Foundation—Osaka University Project for Infectious Disease Prevention.”