This paper examines the recovery of the enteric adenovirus human adenovirus 40 (HAdV 40) by cross-flow ultrafiltration and interprets recovery values in terms of physicochemical interactions of virions during sample concentration. Prior to ultrafiltration, membranes were either blocked by exposure to calf serum (CS) or coated with a polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM). HAdV 40 is a hydrophobic virus with a point of zero charge between pH 4.0 and pH 4.3. In accordance with predictions from the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory, the preelution recovery of HAdV (r pre ) from deionized water was higher with PEMcoated membranes (r pre PEM ؍ 74.8% ؎ 9.7%) than with CS-blocked membranes (r pre CS ؍ 54.1% ؎ 6.2%). With either membrane type, the total virion recovery after elution (r post ) was high for both deionized water (r post PEM ؍ 99.5% ؎ 6.6% and r post CS ؍ 98.8% ؎ 7.7%) and tap water (r post PEM ؍ 89% ؎ 15% and r post CS ؍ 93.7% ؎ 6.9%). The nearly 100% recoveries suggest that the polyanion (sodium polyphosphate) and surfactant (Tween 80) in the eluent disrupt electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between the virion and the membrane. Addition of EDTA to the eluent greatly improved the elution efficacy (r post CS ؍ 88.6% ؎ 4.3% and r post PEM ؍ 87.0% ؎ 6.9%) with surface water, even when the organic carbon concentration in the water was high (9.4 ؎ 0.1 mg/liter). EDTA likely disrupts cation bridging between virions and particles in the feed water matrix or the fouling layer on the membrane surface. For complex water matrices, the eluent composition is the most important factor for achieving high virion recovery.
IMPORTANCEHerein we present the results of a comprehensive physicochemical characterization of HAdV 40, an important human pathogen. The data on HAdV 40 surface properties enabled rigorous modeling to gain an understanding of the energetics of virion-virion and virion-filter interactions. Cross-flow filtration for concentration and recovery of HAdV 40 was evaluated, with postelution recoveries from ultrapure water (99%), tap water (ϳ91%), and high-carbon-content surface water (ϳ84%) being demonstrated. These results are significant because of the very low adenovirus recoveries that have been reported, to date, for other methods. The recovery data were interpreted in terms of specific interactions, and the eluent composition was designed accordingly to maximize HAdV 40 recovery. P athogenic microorganisms cause many waterborne diseases, and the World Health Organization reports that water supply contamination leads to 842,000 deaths annually (1). Along with caliciviruses (e.g., norovirus), enteroviruses (e.g., poliovirus, coxsackievirus, and echovirus), and hepatitis A viruses, human adenovirus (HAdV) is one of the viral pathogens in EPA contaminant candidate lists 3 and 4 and is the second-leading cause of childhood gastroenteritis worldwide (2-4). Most cases of adenovirusassociated gastroenteritis stem from HAdV serotypes 40 and 41 (5), which are relatively resis...