Human Coronavirus 229E Remains Infectious on Common Touch Surface Materials

Warnes, Sarah L.; Little, Zoë R.; Keevil, C. William

In our results, the Cu(I) chelator BCS protected coronavirus on brass surfaces, suggesting that Cu Ï© migrating from the metal is important in toxicity and supporting the Fenton reaction generation of hydroxyl radicals that was observed. Perhaps the reason brasses were more effective at inactivating coronavirus than copper nickels was the increased Cu(I) release and subsequent ROS generation rather than the zinc content, which had only mild antiviral activity. Presumably, as in bacteria, a multitarget attack on enveloped viruses by copper ions and ROS may result in nonenzymatic peroxidation of the envelope (44) and damage to membrane proteins and the nucleoproteins. We have observed previously (27) that exposure to copper surfaces resulted in significant morphological changes to nonenveloped norovirus, where possible disassociation of the capsid subunits exposed the viral genome to copper inactivation. In this study, we observed rapid damage, including clumping, breakage, membrane damage, and loss of surface spikes, to the coronavirus particles following exposure to copper, and some particles appeared smaller and seemed to have lost rigidity, folding up on themselves. These changes were not observed with virus recovered from stainless steel surfaces.