SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah researchers found that temperature has a big effect on the structure of particles like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in a new study.
Working with researchers at the University of California, Davis, American scientists tested how temperature and humidity affect the structure of these particles on surfaces and found that even moderate temperature rises broke the structure of the virus.
The findings were published in a Nov. 28 article in 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 U. Abhianyu Sharma, Benjamin Preece, Heather Swann and Saveez Saffarian. Vershinin told KSL.com that the study has gained national and international attention since it was published.
“We have been very pleased with the impact this is having,” he said.
According to a U.S. press release on the findings, the SARS-CoV-2 virus must maintain its structure, “a specific network of proteins arranged in a specific order,” to remain infectious. When this structure collapses, it is more difficult to transmit the virus.
“Temperature was expected to make a big difference, and that’s what we saw. To the point that the packaging of the virus was completely destroyed even by moderate temperature increases,” Vershinin said in the statement. “What’s surprising is how little heat was needed to break them: warm surfaces to the touch, but not hot. The packaging of this virus is very sensitive to temperature.”
Utah researchers not only studied the impact of temperature on the virus, but also created the 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’ll expect the temperature to make a big difference, and that’s what we saw.
–Professor Michael Vershinin, University of Utah
“If you think about what a virus is, it usually has a genome and it has a packaging,” Vershinin explained. “Survival of the virus as it travels from host to host is related, in many ways, to the way the genome is packaged. So it’s not a 100% replica, but it’s a very good model for treat the virus the environment. ” The particles were essentially the virus without its genome.
Scientists found that moisture had little effect on surfaces, but they still believe that moisture has an impact on transmissibility when the virus is in the air.
“From the beginning, people have theorized that the main effect of moisture on viruses and the reason why it would matter is that it affects the way these aerosols dry out,” Vershinin said.
SARS-CoV-2 circulates through aerosol droplets that are ejected when people talk, breathe, cough, and sneeze; scientists believe that these aerosols stay longer in humid conditions and evaporate more quickly in dry conditions.
So, does that mean this study is easier to transmit to the coronavirus in cold weather?
“It is likely to be the implication of this work,” Vershinin said, although he warned that there are several steps between his research and to prove it definitively. But the U.S. study “doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” he said, and other research also suggests that.
Vershinin said the U. study is important because it examines the virus at a much more granular and specific level than most others. “Connecting it to the mechanism, exactly how this happens, proving that at least one of the mechanisms probably involves the degradation of the virus particles themselves, on an individual level, is very important because it helps us understand what is really going on.”
He said scientists have made great strides in understanding the virus over such a short period of time, but he believes SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses will continue to be actively studied for years to come. “Viruses are complicated,” he said sadly. “The vaccine is not the end of the investigation, nor the end of the questions.”
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Graham Dudley