Aerosolkammerstudien zur Charakterisierung der SARS-CoV-2-Übertragung durch Aerosolpartikel (AEROVIR)
Physik und Chemie der Atmosphäre
Virologie
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
An experimental setup to generate droplets in the size range of human exhale which contain virus particles was built and tested successfully. The virus-loaded aerosol particles were collected by two types of bio-samplers and analysed for viral DNA by PCR, viral infectiousness by plaque assays and the presence of virus particles by high-resolution helium ion microscopy. The disinfection effect of with UV-A and UV-C irradiation, under different doses was tested successfully. In order to establish a correlative microscopy work-flow to detect virus particles in the collected aerosol samples fluorescence in-situ hybridisation experiments with He-La cells (to test chemicals) and SARS-CoV2 infected Vero-6 cells were carried out successfully. A method for the preparation of Vero-6 / SARS-CoV2 samples for helium ion microscopy was developed but requires further optimisation. The proposed methodology to generate, collect and analyse virus-loaded aerosols is suitable to assess the effectivity of UV-irradiation based commercial air-disinfection apparatuses. Overall, the proposed plan to build the aerosol chamber set-up and develop the analytical methodology was covered as had been scheduled in the proposal. The planned fluorescence in-situ hybridisation experiments with Vero-6 cells (which provide a standard system for infection with SARS-CoV2) could not be carried out as initially planned. For that reason, the experiments were carried out with T4 phages instead as those could be cultivated at UFZ.
