Methods of inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 for downstream biological assays

EI Patterson, T Prince, ER Anderson… - The Journal of …, 2020 - academic.oup.com
The Journal of infectious diseases, 2020academic.oup.com
The scientific community has responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic by rapidly undertaking research to find effective strategies to reduce the burden of
this disease. Encouragingly, researchers from a diverse array of fields are collectively
working towards this goal. Research with infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is undertaken in high-containment laboratories; however, it is
often desirable to work with samples at lower-containment levels. To facilitate the transfer of …
Abstract
The scientific community has responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by rapidly undertaking research to find effective strategies to reduce the burden of this disease. Encouragingly, researchers from a diverse array of fields are collectively working towards this goal. Research with infectious severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is undertaken in high-containment laboratories; however, it is often desirable to work with samples at lower-containment levels. To facilitate the transfer of infectious samples from high-containment laboratories, we have tested methods commonly used to inactivate virus and prepare the sample for additional experiments. Incubation at 80°C, a range of detergents, Trizol reagents, and UV energies were successful at inactivating a high titer of SARS-CoV-2. Methanol and paraformaldehyde incubation of infected cells also inactivated the virus. These protocols can provide a framework for in-house inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in other laboratories, ensuring the safe use of samples in lower-containment levels.
Oxford University Press