Scientists at the University of South Australia (UniSA) may have accidentally developed a gas to kill the virus which causes COVID-19.
Lead Researcher at Future Industries Institute at UniSA, Endre Szili (pictured) said the gas was developed to treat antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections in diabetic foot ulcers, but could also be used to kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in air conditioning systems.
Dr Szili said the unexpected discovery came about by combining cold plasma gas with acetyl donor molecules to improve its oxidation action, which was found to completely kill bacteria found in chronic wounds, detailed in the research article On-demand cold plasma activation of acetyl donors for bacteria and virus decontamination.
He said the research was conducted in collaboration with Professor and Director of the Material Science Institute at Lancaster University in the UK, Rob Short and British colleagues at the University of Bath, GAMA Healthcare and AGA Nanotech.
“We then investigated whether this same technology could be effective at killing the SARS-CoV-2 virus and it appears that it is,” he said.
“We showed that we could achieve an 84 per cent reduction in viral load using plasma combined with acetyl donor molecules based on a standard dosage that is safe for human cells.
“However, it is highly possible with some modifications that we could eradicate it completely.”
Dr Szili said the solution was yet to be tested on variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus but the technology could be used to disinfect surfaces in hospitals and other buildings, as well as dispersed through air conditioning systems.
He said the findings were also significant for diabetic patients, promising an end to chronic foot wounds which affected approximately 15 per cent of the world’s 415 million diabetics.
The Article is published in Applied Physics Letters and an abstract can be accessed at this PS News link.
