Development of a new disinfectant with very strong anti-influenza viral activity: a preliminary report

Hiroki Takakuwa,Masaaki Miyazawa,Tomoyo Hata,Toshiyuki Maruoka,Hitoshi Toshimori,Tadayo Hata,Koichi Otsuki

doi:10.1007/s12199-009-0112-y

Abstract

We evaluated the effectiveness and safety of a disinfectant newly developed by our laboratories for use against influenza viruses. The effectiveness of our new disinfectant against avian, swine and human influenza viruses was tested in ovo. The acute toxicity of this disinfectant to two different cultured cell lines was investigated. This new disinfectant showed very strong anti-influenza viral activity in the in ovo tests. All of the influenza viruses tested were inactivated very quickly. Following exposure to the disinfectant, the infectivity of all viral strains tested had been eliminated within ≤10 min. The infectant showed a weak acute toxicity in vitro. This new disinfectant is expected to be useful for preventing viral infection during a new influenza pandemic.

Highlights

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza and other emerging and re-emerging diseases have caused serious economical and social disturbances worldwide [1,2,3,4]
The results of experiment 1 (Table 1) show that all human, a swine and avian influenza A viruses belonging to the H1N1, H3N2, H4N6, H5N3, H6N6 and H7N7 subtypes lost at least 106 EID50 of their infectivity following contact with the new disinfectant for 10 min at room temperature, thereby demonstrating that this disinfectant has a very strong anti-influenza virus activity
We did not use the H5N1 virus in this investigation for the following reason: it is difficult to get a sufficient high titre of H5N1 virus since the virulence of this highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is so severe that infected chick embryos died less than 16 h post inoculation and, the virus titre in allantoic fluid was generally low

Summary

Introduction

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza and other emerging and re-emerging diseases have caused serious economical and social disturbances worldwide [1,2,3,4]. The pandemic H1N1 subtype influenza virus has rapidly spread throughout the world since the end of April 2009, the production of a new influenza vaccine is still insufficient. The preparation of large amounts of medicine effective against influenza was difficult prior to the occurrence of this latest pandemic. There is a need to develop possible control methods, such as an obtained, effective disinfectant to prevent the virus from spreading. Our laboratories have succeeded in developing a new disinfectant which consists mainly of an iron ion. Tests have demonstrated that this disinfectant in very efficient in rapidly inactivating bacteria and influenza viruses

Objectives

Methods

Results