SALT LAKE CITY – Researchers at the University of Utah have found that temperature has a large effect on the structure of particles such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in a new study.
Working with researchers at the University of California, Davis, US scientists tested how temperature and humidity affect the structure of such particles on surfaces and found that even moderate temperature increases destroyed the structure of the virus.
The findings were published in a November 28 issue of the journal Biochemical Biophysical Research Communications.
Michael Vershinin, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah, co-authored the paper with fellow Americans Abhianyu Sharma, Benjamin Preece, Heather Swann and Saveez Saffarian. Vershinin told KSL.com that the study has gained national and international attention since its publication.
“We were very pleased with the impact this has had,” he said.
According to a US press release about the findings, the SARS-CoV-2 virus must maintain its structure, “a specific network of proteins arranged in a certain order”, in order to remain infectious. When that structure falls apart, it is more difficult to transmit the virus.
“You would expect the temperature to make a huge difference and that’s what we saw. To the point where the virus’s packaging was completely destroyed even by moderate temperature rises,” Vershinin said in a statement. “What’s surprising is how little heat was needed to decompose them – surfaces that are warm to the touch but not hot. The packaging of this virus is very sensitive to temperature.”
Researchers in Utah not only studied the impact of temperature on the virus, but also created virus-like particles used in the study. This allowed them to study SARS-CoV-2 without the risk of accidental outbreak. The process of this creation was detailed in a separate paper published this month.
You would expect the temperature to make a huge difference and that’s what I saw.
– Professor Michael Vershinin, University of Utah
“If you think about what a virus is, it usually has a genome and then it has some packaging,” Vershinin explained. “Survival of the virus as it moves from host to host is, in many ways, related to how the genome is packaged. So it’s not a 100% replica, but it’s a very good model for how the virus treats the environment. “The particles were essentially the virus without its genome.
Scientists have found that moisture has had a reduced effect on surfaces, but they believe that moisture has an impact on transmissibility when the virus is in the air.
“From the beginning, people have theorized that the major effect of moisture on viruses and why they matter is that it affects how these aerosols dry out,” Vershinin said.
SARS-CoV-2 moves along aerosol droplets that are expelled when people talk, breathe, cough and sneeze; Scientists believe that those aerosols remain longer in humid conditions and evaporate faster in dry conditions.
So does this study mean that it is easier to transmit to the coronavirus in cold weather?
“This is probably the implication of this work,” Vershinin said, although he warned that there were several steps between his research and its definitive proof. But the U.S. study “does not exist in a vacuum,” he said, and other research suggests that.
Vershinin said the US study is important because it examines the virus at a much more granular and specific level than most others. “Connecting to the mechanism, exactly how it happens – showing that at least one of the mechanisms that probably involves the degradation of the virus particles itself, on an individual level, is very important, because it helps us understand what is actually happening.”
He said scientists have made great strides in understanding the virus for such a short time, but believes that SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses will continue to be actively studied in the coming years. “Viruses are complicated,” he said sadly. “The vaccine is not the end of the investigation and not the end of the questions.”
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Graham Dudley