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Comparative Study
. 2017 Mar 15;215(6):902-906.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jix046.

Virucidal Activity of World Health Organization-Recommended Formulations Against Enveloped Viruses, Including Zika, Ebola, and Emerging Coronaviruses

Anindya Siddharta  1 , Stephanie Pfaender  2   3 , Nathalie Jane Vielle  2   4   3 , Ronald Dijkman  2   3 , Martina Friesland  1 , Britta Becker  5 , Jaewon Yang  6 , Michael Engelmann  1 , Daniel Todt  1 , Marc P Windisch  6 , Florian H Brill  5 , Joerg Steinmann  7 , Jochen Steinmann  5 , Stephan Becker  8 , Marco P Alves  2   3 , Thomas Pietschmann  1 , Markus Eickmann  8 , Volker Thiel  2   3 , Eike Steinmann  1
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Virucidal Activity of World Health Organization-Recommended Formulations Against Enveloped Viruses, Including Zika, Ebola, and Emerging Coronaviruses

Anindya Siddharta et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) published 2 alcohol-based formulations to be used in healthcare settings and for outbreak-associated infections, but inactivation efficacies of these products have not been determined against (re-)emerging viruses. In this study, we evaluated the virucidal activity of these WHO products in a comparative analysis. Zika virus (ZIKV), Ebola virus (EBOV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as (re-)emerging viral pathogens and other enveloped viruses could be efficiently inactivated by both WHO formulations, implicating their use in healthcare systems and viral outbreak situations.

Keywords: Ebola virus; SARS; WHO; Zika virus; MERS.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Virucidal activity of World Health Organization (WHO) formulations I and II against hepatitis C virus (HCV), Zika virus (ZIKV), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV). A, World Health Organization formulations I and II were tested for their efficacy in inactivating HCV. The biocide concentrations ranged from 0% to 80% with an exposure time of 30 seconds. For this inactivation assay, 1 part virus and 1 part organic load were mixed with 8 parts biocide. Residual infectivity was determined by a limiting dilution assay. Viral titers are displayed as 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) values. The cytotoxicity was calculated in analogy to the determination of virus titer (TCID50/mL) and is depicted as a dashed line. The means of 2 independent experiments with standard deviations are shown. Efficacy of WHO formulations I and II against ZIKV (B), MERS-CoV (C), and SARS-CoV (D) was addressed by a quantitative suspension assay as described for panel A. Abbreviation: nd, not detected.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effect of World Health Organization formulations I and II against Ebola virus (EBOV) and comparative viral susceptibility analysis. World Health Organization formulations I and II were tested for their efficacy in inactivating EBOV transcription- and replication-competent virus-like particles (trVLPs) (A) and EBOV (B). The biocide concentrations ranged from 0% to 80% with an exposure time of 30 seconds. For this inactivation assay, 1 part virus and 1 part organic load were mixed with 8 parts of biocide. For determination of the EBOV trVLP infectivity, luciferase activity was measured 72 hours later. For EBOV, residual infectivity was determined by a limiting dilution assay. Viral titers are displayed as 50% tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) values. The cytotoxicity was calculated in analogy to the determination of virus titer (TCID50/mL) and is depicted as a dashed line. The means of 2 independent experiments with standard deviations are shown. Normalized values of percentage inactivation of viral infectivity (y-axis) were plotted against WHO formulations I (C) or II (D) in dose-response curves (x-axis, log representation). Viruses are listed in each panel and are ranked from the most to the least stable. Normalization and nonlinear regression calculation of all data were performed using GraphPad Prism version 6.07 for Windows. Abbreviation: nd, not detected.
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