Heat-Treated Virus Inactivation Rate Depends Strongly on Treatment Procedure: Illustration with SARS-CoV-2
- PMID:34288702
- PMCID: PMC8432576
- DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00314-21
Heat-Treated Virus Inactivation Rate Depends Strongly on Treatment Procedure: Illustration with SARS-CoV-2
Abstract
Decontamination helps limit environmental transmission of infectious agents. It is required for the safe reuse of contaminated medical, laboratory, and personal protective equipment, and for the safe handling of biological samples. Heat treatment is a common decontamination method, notably used for viruses. We show that for liquid specimens (here, solution of SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture medium), the virus inactivation rate under heat treatment at 70°C can vary by almost two orders of magnitude depending on the treatment procedure, from a half-life of 0.86 min (95% credible interval [CI] 0.09, 1.77) in closed vials in a heat block to 37.04 min (95% CI 12.64, 869.82) in uncovered plates in a dry oven. These findings suggest a critical role of evaporation in virus inactivation via dry heat. Placing samples in open or uncovered containers may dramatically reduce the speed and efficacy of heat treatment for virus inactivation. Given these findings, we reviewed the literature on temperature-dependent coronavirus stability and found that specimen container types, along with whether they are closed, covered, or uncovered, are rarely reported in the scientific literature. Heat-treatment procedures must be fully specified when reporting experimental studies to facilitate result interpretation and reproducibility, and must be carefully considered when developing decontamination guidelines.IMPORTANCE Heat is a powerful weapon against most infectious agents. It is widely used for decontamination of medical, laboratory, and personal protective equipment, and for biological samples. There are many methods of heat treatment, and methodological details can affect speed and efficacy of decontamination. We applied four different heat-treatment procedures to liquid specimens containing SARS-CoV-2. Our results show that the container used to store specimens during decontamination can substantially affect inactivation rate; for a given initial level of contamination, decontamination time can vary from a few minutes in closed vials to several hours in uncovered plates. Reviewing the literature, we found that container choices and heat treatment methods are only rarely reported explicitly in methods sections. Our study shows that careful consideration of heat-treatment procedure-in particular the choice of specimen container and whether it is covered-can make results more consistent across studies, improve decontamination practice, and provide insight into the mechanisms of virus inactivation.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; decontamination; environmental persistence; environmental stability; heat treatment; temperature.
Figures


Update of
- Heat-treated virus inactivation rate depends strongly on treatment procedure: illustration with SARS-CoV-2.Gamble A, Fischer RJ, Morris DH, Yinda KC, Munster VJ, Lloyd-Smith JO.Gamble A, et al.bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2021 Jul 7:2020.08.10.242206. doi: 10.1101/2020.08.10.242206.bioRxiv. 2021.Update in:Appl Environ Microbiol. 2021 Sep 10;87(19):e0031421. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00314-21.PMID:32793913Free PMC article.Updated.Preprint.
Similar articles
- Heat-treated virus inactivation rate depends strongly on treatment procedure: illustration with SARS-CoV-2.Gamble A, Fischer RJ, Morris DH, Yinda KC, Munster VJ, Lloyd-Smith JO.Gamble A, et al.bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2021 Jul 7:2020.08.10.242206. doi: 10.1101/2020.08.10.242206.bioRxiv. 2021.Update in:Appl Environ Microbiol. 2021 Sep 10;87(19):e0031421. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00314-21.PMID:32793913Free PMC article.Updated.Preprint.
- Humidity and Deposition Solution Play a Critical Role in Virus Inactivation by Heat Treatment of N95 Respirators.Rockey N, Arts PJ, Li L, Harrison KR, Langenfeld K, Fitzsimmons WJ, Lauring AS, Love NG, Kaye KS, Raskin L, Roberts WW, Hegarty B, Wigginton KR.Rockey N, et al.mSphere. 2020 Oct 21;5(5):e00588-20. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00588-20.mSphere. 2020.PMID:33087516Free PMC article.
- "Don, doff, discard" to "don, doff, decontaminate"-FFR and mask integrity and inactivation of a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate and a norovirus following multiple vaporised hydrogen peroxide-, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation-, and dry heat decontaminations.Ludwig-Begall LF, Wielick C, Jolois O, Dams L, Razafimahefa RM, Nauwynck H, Demeuldre PF, Napp A, Laperre J, Thiry E, Haubruge E.Ludwig-Begall LF, et al.PLoS One. 2021 May 19;16(5):e0251872. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251872. eCollection 2021.PLoS One. 2021.PMID:34010337Free PMC article.
- Efficacy and safety of decontamination for N95 respirator reuse: a systematic literature search and narrative synthesis.Steinberg BE, Aoyama K, McVey M, Levin D, Siddiqui A, Munshey F, Goldenberg NM, Faraoni D, Maynes JT.Steinberg BE, et al.Can J Anaesth. 2020 Dec;67(12):1814-1823. doi: 10.1007/s12630-020-01770-w. Epub 2020 Jul 27.Can J Anaesth. 2020.PMID:32720256Free PMC article.Review.
- Viral Inactivation with Emphasis on SARS-CoV-2 Using Physical and Chemical Disinfectants.Fadaei A.Fadaei A.ScientificWorldJournal. 2021 Oct 25;2021:9342748. doi: 10.1155/2021/9342748. eCollection 2021.ScientificWorldJournal. 2021.PMID:34712107Free PMC article.Review.
Cited by
- Changes in Dietary Patterns and Clinical Health Outcomes in Different Countries during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.Filip R, Anchidin-Norocel L, Gheorghita R, Savage WK, Dimian M.Filip R, et al.Nutrients. 2021 Oct 15;13(10):3612. doi: 10.3390/nu13103612.Nutrients. 2021.PMID:34684615Free PMC article.Review.
- Disinfection methods against SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review.Viana Martins CP, Xavier CSF, Cobrado L.Viana Martins CP, et al.J Hosp Infect. 2022 Jan;119:84-117. doi: 10.1016/j.jhin.2021.07.014. Epub 2021 Oct 18.J Hosp Infect. 2022.PMID:34673114Free PMC article.Review.
- Biosafety during a pandemic: shared resource laboratories rise to the challenge.Aspland AM, Douagi I, Filby A, Jellison ER, Martinez L, Shinko D, Smith AL, Tang VA, Thornton S.Aspland AM, et al.Cytometry A. 2021 Jan;99(1):68-80. doi: 10.1002/cyto.a.24280. Epub 2021 Jan 4.Cytometry A. 2021.PMID:33289290Free PMC article.Review.
- Heat inactivation of clinical COVID-19 samples on an industrial scale for low risk and efficient high-throughput qRT-PCR diagnostic testing.Delpuech O, Douthwaite JA, Hill T, Niranjan D, Malintan NT, Duvoisin H, Elliott J, Goodfellow I, Hosmillo M, Orton AL, Taylor MA, Brankin C, Pitt H, Ross-Thriepland D, Siek M, Cuthbert A, Richards I, Ferdinand JR, Barker C, Shaw R, Ariani C, Waddell I, Rees S, Green C, Clark R, Upadhyay A, Howes R.Delpuech O, et al.Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 21;12(1):2883. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06888-z.Sci Rep. 2022.PMID:35190592Free PMC article.
- Methods to disinfect and decontaminate SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review ofin vitro studies.Kwok CS, Dashti M, Tafuro J, Nasiri M, Muntean EA, Wong N, Kemp T, Hills G, Mallen CD.Kwok CS, et al.Ther Adv Infect Dis. 2021 Mar 16;8:2049936121998548. doi: 10.1177/2049936121998548. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.Ther Adv Infect Dis. 2021.PMID:33796289Free PMC article.Review.
References
- Ong SWX, Tan YK, Chia PY, Lee TH, Ng OT, Wong MSY, Marimuthu K. 2020. Air, surface environmental, and personal protective equipment contamination by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from a symptomatic patient. JAMA 323:1610–1612. 10.1001/jama.2020.3227. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
- van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris DH, Holbrook MG, Gamble A, Williamson BN, Tamin A, Harcourt JL, Thornburg NJ, Gerber SI, Lloyd-Smith JO, de Wit E, Munster VJ. 2020. Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 as compared with SARS-CoV-1. N Engl J Med 382:1564–1567. 10.1056/NEJMc2004973. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous