Long-Lasting Disinfectant Protects Against Viruses for Up to 7 Days – Promises To Help Fight Pandemics

An alum and some researchers at UCF used nanotechnology to develop the cleaning agent, which provides protection against seven viruses for up to seven days.

UCF researchers have developed a nanoparticle-based disinfectant that can continuously kill viruses on a surface for up to seven days — a discovery that could be a powerful weapon against COVID-19 and other emerging pathogenic viruses.

The findings, by a multidisciplinary team of virus and technical experts from the university and the leader of an Orlando technology company, were published this week in ACS Nano, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

Christina Drake ’07PhD, founder of Kismet Technologies, was inspired to develop the sanitizer after visiting the grocery store in the early days of the pandemic. There, she saw an employee spray disinfectant on the handle of a refrigerator and then immediately wipe the spray off.

dr. Griff Parks, a virologist from the College of Medicine, worked with an engineer and entrepreneur to develop the disinfectant. Credit: University of Central Florida

“Initially my thought was to develop a fast-acting disinfectant,” she says, “but we spoke to consumers, such as doctors and dentists, to find out what they really wanted from a disinfectant. What was most important to them was something that would last and that would continue to disinfect high-touch areas such as door handles and floors long after application.”

Drake worked with Sudipta Seal, a UCF materials engineer and nanoscience expert, and Griff Parks, a College of Medicine virologist who is also associate dean of research and director of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. With funding from the US National Science Foundation, Kismet Tech and the Florida High Tech Corridor, the researchers created a nanoparticle-developed disinfectant.

The active ingredient is an artificial nanostructure called cerium oxide, which is known for its regenerative antioxidant properties. The cerium oxide nanoparticles have been modified with small amounts of silver to make them more potent against pathogens.

Sudipta Seal is a UCF materials engineer and nanoscience expert who has been studying nanotechnology for the past 20 years. Credit: University of Central Florida

“It works both chemically and mechanically,” says Seal, who has studied nanotechnology for more than 20 years. “The nanoparticles emit electrons that oxidize the virus, rendering it inactive. They also mechanically attach themselves to the virus and tear open the surface, almost like popping a balloon.”

Most disinfectant wipes or sprays disinfect a surface within three to six minutes of application, but have no residual effects. This means that surfaces need to be wiped down repeatedly to stay clear of some viruses, such as COVID-19. The nanoparticle formulation retains its ability to inactivate microbes and will continue to disinfect a surface for up to seven days after a single application.

dr. Christina Drake is founder of Kismet Technologies. Credit: Dr. Christina Drake

“The disinfectant has shown tremendous antiviral activity against seven different viruses,” said Parks, whose lab was responsible for testing the formulation against “a dictionary” of viruses. “Not only did it exhibit antiviral properties against coronavirus and rhinovirus, but it also proved effective against a wide variety of other viruses of varying structures and complexities. We are hopeful that this disinfectant with this amazing number of killing capacities will also be a very effective agent against other new emerging viruses. “

The scientists are confident that the solution will have a major impact, especially in healthcare, by reducing the number of hospital-acquired infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Clostridium difficile – which affect more than one in 30 people. meet. patients admitted to US hospitals.

And unlike many commercial disinfectants, the formulation contains no harmful chemicals, indicating it’s safe to use on any surface. Regulated testing for skin and eye cell irritation, as required by the US Environmental Protection Agency, showed no adverse effects.

“Many household sanitizers on the market today contain chemicals that can be harmful to the body with repeated exposure,” says Drake. “Our nanoparticle-based product will have a high safety rating and will play an important role in reducing the overall chemical exposure for humans.”

More research is needed before the product can hit the market. Therefore, the next phase of the research will look at how the disinfectant performs outside the lab in real-world applications. That work will look at how the disinfectant is affected by external factors such as temperature or sunlight. The team is in talks with a local hospital network to test the product in their facilities.

“We are also looking into developing a semi-permanent film to see if we can coat and seal a hospital floor or door handles, areas where things need to be disinfected and even with aggressive and sustained contact,” Drake says.

Reference: “Nanoscale metal-mediated cerium oxide inactivates human coronavirus and rhinovirus by surface disturbance” by Craig J. Neal, Candace R. Fox, Tamil Selvan Sakthivel, Udit Kumar, Yifei Fu, Christina Drake, Griffith D. Parks, and Sudipta Seal, Aug 26 2021, ACS Nano.
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.1c04142

Seal joined UCF’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 1997, which is part of UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. He holds a position at the College of Medicine and is a member of UCF’s Biionix Cluster, which focuses on advancing medical technology for prosthetics. He is the former director of UCF’s Nanoscience Technology Center and Advanced Materials Processing Analysis Center. He received his PhD in materials science with a minor in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California Berkeley.

Parks came to UCF in 2014 after 20 years at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, where he was professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and was an American Cancer Society Fellow at Northwestern University.

The study was co-authored by postdoctoral researchers Candace Fox of the College of Medicine and Craig Neal of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Graduate students of Tamil Sakthivel, Udit Kumar and Yifei Fu from the College of Engineering and Computer Science were also co-authors.