AirV: development and validation plataform of biocidal products and equipments

Abstract

Health crises in the pandemic context, tied to infectious diseases, require rapid biotechnology solutions to reduce transmissibility, proposing virucidal products (which inactivate viruses), treatment methods, vaccines, epidemiological surveillance, actions and instructions for public policies. The dramatic pandemic of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has enhanced the importance of virucidal technologies to reduce the transmission capacity of respiratory pathogens. A growing demand was mapped and validated for products with virucidal activity, such as antiseptics, air purifiers, ozonization equipment, UV-C, disinfection technologies, tissues and non-porous surfaces with virucidal assets could be evaluated and have a scientific technical support proving the inactivation of viral particles. The companies that work with surface and indoor disinfection equipment observed a market opportunity in the scenario of the COVID-19 pandemics. Disinfection and sterilization technologies by means of ozone generators, ultraviolet lamps had greater repercussion in the fight against the virus. The applicability of these devices is correlated with a reduction of SARS-CoV-2 infection by airbone. It is known that transmission of the virus occurs with higher incidence due to inhalation of particles or viral droplets, which are generated when an infected person is talking, breathing, coughing, sneezing. For this reason, an initial prototype has already been developed by Crop, however under restricted conditions of real environments. Thus, the present project proposes the development of a platform capable of clouding pathogenic (viral) solutions, generating droplets within an airtight system, being possible to collect the biological content, from the generated particulates, quantifying the infectivity of the viral particle during the normal nebulization process and after exposure to different technologies of internal environments disinfection, simulating air conditions closer to reality. Initially, the technology responds to a scientific and evidential demand for the efficacy of these technologies in the face of SARS-CoV-2, which can simulate the main route of transmission of the virus and future pathogens of public health relevance. (AU)