Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Surrogate TGEV Individual Virions Structure Survival under Harsh Physicochemical Environments

Abstract

Effective airborne transmission of coronaviruses via liquid microdroplets requires a virion structure that must withstand harsh environmental conditions. Due to the demanding biosafety requirements for the study of human respiratory viruses, it is important to develop surrogate models to facilitate their investigation. Here we explore the mechanical properties and nanostructure of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) virions in liquid milieu and their response to different chemical agents commonly used as biocides. Our data provide two-fold results on virus stability: First, while particles with larger size and lower packing fraction kept their morphology intact after successive mechanical aggressions, smaller viruses with higher packing fraction showed conspicuous evidence of structural damage and content release. Second, monitoring the structure of single TGEV particles in the presence of detergent and alcohol in real time revealed the stages of gradual degradation of the virus structure in situ. These data suggest that detergent is three orders of magnitude more efficient than alcohol in destabilizing TGEV virus particles, paving the way for optimizing hygienic protocols for viruses with similar structure, such as SARS-CoV-2.

Tomo Live: an on-the-fly reconstruction pipeline to judge data quality for cryo-electron tomography workflows

“…Vitrified grids of porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and influenza virions were provided by the Martı ´n-Benito Romero laboratory based at CNB-CSIC, Madrid. These samples were prepared as described in previous publications (Cantero et al, 2022;Arranz et al, 2012).…”

Water bath is more efficient than hot air oven at thermal inactivation of coronavirus

“…These common features made TGEV and other human coronaviruses indistinguishable in structure and components, and made the TGEV an excellent model for studying sensitivity and stability to antiviral agents [ 32 , 33 ]. In fact, TGEV has been used as a surrogate for SARS CoV and SARS-CoV-2 for susceptibility testing to biocidal agents and harsh environments [ 34 , 35 ]. Our comparison will provide a technical reference for the establishments of a thermal inactivation protocol, which could be critical for virus inactivation efficiency, diagnostic accuracy, and biosafety.…”

Surface crosslinking of virus-like particles increases resistance to proteases, low pH, and mechanical stress for mucosal applications

“…To this end, there is compelling evidence that viruses, viral vectors, and VLPs disintegrate under mechanical force (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), and in unfavorable chemical environments (26,27). This raised the question: can surface crosslinking using macromolecule tethers enhance the stability of VLP capsids?…”