COVID Electric field of moderate strength inactivates Covid-19 virus

AI Thread Summary
A research team from the University of Kassel has demonstrated that moderate electric fields can inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus by destabilizing its spike protein, potentially leading to reduced infectivity. The study indicates that electric fields of around 0.1 MV/m can cause significant structural damage to the virus, suggesting applications in air filtration systems or masks to enhance immunity against various strains. The discussion also touches on the feasibility of using high-voltage electric fields in practical settings, with some skepticism regarding their safety and effectiveness compared to existing methods like UV light for virus decontamination. Concerns are raised about the practicality of implementing such electric fields in public spaces, as well as potential adverse effects on electronic devices. Overall, while the findings are promising, the application of high electric fields in real-world scenarios remains contentious.
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TL;DR Summary
Electric field of moderate strength inactivates Convid-19 virus
A science team from the university of Kassel (Germany) proved with a physical model, that a moderate electric field inactivates the Convid-19 virus.

paper said:
The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is vulnerable to moderate electric fields
...
Here we show, with the help of atomistic simulations, that external electric fields of easily achievable and moderate strengths can dramatically destabilise the S protein, inducing long-lasting structural damage.
...
Last but not least, and on the same line, the application of EFs to SARS-CoV-2, which strongly reduces its infectivity through modification of S, might also offer the possibility to generate, though applications in air filters or masks, partial immunity or cross reactivity against wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and its different mutations.
Source:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25478-7

via:
https://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/aktue...iger-elektrischer-spannung-gegen-corona-viren
 
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Likes Tom.G
Biology news on Phys.org
Love it. Bug Zappers for the virus!

Sounds like a good reason to install electrostatic air cleaners in public buildings.
 
Or I could just walk around with a parallel plate capacitor attached to my mouth.
I would just need to be careful not to spit through it while it's charged...Someone should really introduce this research to the conspiracy theorists, They already have tinfoil hats just need to attach a wire and charge it up.
 
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Likes Tom.G
I would not call 10 MV/m "moderate".
 
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Vanadium 50 said:
I would not call 10 MV/m "moderate".
Not for internal use, I take it.

I'm aware of UV studies on SARS-Cov-2 looking at UVA, B, C or sunlight.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2049080121003691
human CoVs including the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 are inherently sensitive to UVC. However, the successful decontamination using other wavebands requires higher dosages and longer administration times.

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/222/4/564/5856149
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/222/2/214/5841129

UV is used in infectious diseases wards, and has been effective against tuberculosis.
 
@Vanadium yes I opened the research paper and also saw the the E field numbers and my God that is high voltage.
@Astronuc as for UV light I think they already make air filters with UV lamps inside them. I think one could simply make a high throughput ventilation system with strong UV inside and then change the air rapidly in rooms with UV cleaned one.

I would tend to think that the best way to do this would be to pull the "dirty" air upwards and introduce the fresh one from below to create something of a "Marylin Monroe" dress effect flying upwards from the breeze.
One could also heat the indoors by simply heating the fresh air introduced.
 
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Astronuc said:
Not for internal use, I take it.
If you tried that for internal use, pretty soon it would be external use. Think "bug zapper", but for people.
 
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Likes hutchphd, TeethWhitener and Astronuc
I try really hard not to crap on other people’s work, but come on. In what world is application of these huge electric fields relevant to protein docking? I could understand trying to claim a mechanism of effectiveness of ionic air filters for decontamination, but this paper borders on Trump’s suggestion to inject bleach.

Or maybe I’m just bitter that the only Nature Comms paper I ever published took hundreds of hours and tons of work o0)
 
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  • #10
The dielectric strength of very dry STP air is at most 3MV/m, so there's that.
 
  • #11
Vanadium 50 said:
I would not call 10 MV/m "moderate".

According to the peer-review discussion, that would even work with only 0.1 MV/m = 100 V/mm:
Reply to REVIEWER 2
...
These additional calculations clearly show that external electric fields of strengths as low as ##10^5 V/m## produce severe damage in the RBD of the three variants. We have added a new section containing a new figure (Fig. 4) to the manuscript addressing these calculations.
Source:
https://static-content.springer.com.../MediaObjects/41467_2021_25478_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

via:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25478-7
 

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