Structural changes associated with poliovirus inactivation in soil

Abstract

The loss of infectivity of poliovirus in moist and dried soils was a result of irreversible damage to the virus particles. The damage included (i) dissociation of viral genomes and capsids and (ii) degradation of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the soil environment. Under drying conditions, capsid components could not be recovered from the soils. Further studies in sterile soils indicated that, under moist conditions, the viral RNA was probably damaged before dissociation from the capsid. However, in sterile, dried soil, RNA genomes were recovered largely intact from the soil. These results suggest that polioviruses are inactivated by different mechanisms in moist and drying soils.

Inactivation of Indigenous Viruses in Raw Sludge by Air Drying

“…Viral inactivation that occurs during the evaporation of water from sludge has been shown to be irreversible because viral particles disintegrate and release their RNA genomes, which are in a degraded state. A similar effect has been observed when moist soil containing viruses is air dried (10).…”

Enterovirus inactivation in soil

“…Although solids-bound viruses have been shown to retain their infectivity (15), the results presented here do not eliminate the possibility that some soluble soil component eluted from the soil was masking the infectivity of the recovered viruses. The results in the accompanying paper (24) show conclusively that the viruses were inactivated due to irreversible damage in the soil environment.…”

Poliovirus concentration from tap water with electropositive adsorbent filters

“…Poliovirions have two isoelectric points, a major one at pH 6.8 to 7.2 and a minor one at pH 3.5 to 4.0 (19,32). Between pH 3.5 and 7.5, the virion surface charge is probably composed of heterogeneous point charges.…”