Studies have shown that exposure to high temperatures can neutralize the virus and prevent it from infecting another human host, ScienceDaily.

Although it has been previously demonstrated that heat is applied to neutralize COVID-19, previous studies have applied temperature from anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes. This length of time is not a practical solution, as it is difficult and expensive to heat for long periods of time. Han and his team demonstrated that less than a second of heat treatment completely inactivated the coronavirus. This provides a possible solution to mitigate the continued epidemic of COVID-19, especially through long-range aerial propagation.

In the spring of 2020, Medistar Corporation worked with engineering leaders and researchers to explore the possibility of applying a short period of heat to kill COVID-19. Shortly thereafter, Han and his team set about work and built a system to investigate the feasibility of such a procedure.

Their process works by heating a portion of the stainless steel pipe through which the solution containing the coronavirus flows to a high temperature and then immediately cooling that portion. The setup allows the coronavirus passing through the tube to be heated for a very short time. Through this rapid heat process, the team discovered that the virus was completely neutralized in significantly less time than previously thought possible. Their first results were published within two months of the proof-of-concept experiment.

According to Han, heating the solution to about 72 ° C for about 0.5 seconds can reduce the titer of the virus, the amount of virus in the solution, by a factor of 100,000, neutralizing the virus and preventing infection. Enough.

“The potential impact is enormous,” Han said. “I wanted to know how high the temperature could be applied in a short time frame, and whether the coronavirus could actually be heat-inactivated in a very short time. And such a temperature-based corona Whether the virus neutralization strategy works from a practical point of view. The biggest driving force was “can we do something that can mitigate the coronavirus situation?”

Their study appeared on the cover of the May issue of the journal. Biotechnology and bioengineering..

This less than 1 second heat treatment is not only a more efficient and practical solution to prevent the diffusion of COVID-19 into the air, but also this method for existing systems such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. Can also be implemented. ..

It can also lead to potential applications of other viruses that spread in the air, such as the flu virus. Han and his collaborators hope that this thermal inactivation method will be widely applied and will have a truly global impact.

“Influenza is less dangerous, but has proven to be deadly each year. Therefore, if this can lead to the development of air purification systems, not only the coronavirus, but other common aerial viruses as well. It’s also a big problem for us, “says Han. ..

In future research, researchers will build microfluidic-scale test chips that allow the virus to be heat-treated in a much shorter time, say tens of milliseconds, in the hope of identifying the temperature at which the virus is tolerated. It’s a schedule. It is inactivated even with such a short exposure time.

The lead authors of this work are postdoctoral researchers in electrical engineering, Yuqian Jiang and Han Zhang. Other collaborators on this project are Professor Julian L. Reybowitz and Associate Professor Paul Defigaered of the School of Medicine. Postdoctoral fellow in biomedicine Jose A. Wippold; Jyotsana Gupta, associate research scientist in microbial etiology and immunology. And Jing Dai, an assistant research scientist in electrical engineering.

This work is supported by a grant from Medistar Corporation. Some researchers on the project team were also supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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material Provided by Texas A & M University.. Original written by Rachel Rose, Faculty of Engineering, Texas A & M University. Note: The content can be edited in style and length.