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Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma for the Microbial Inactivation of Contaminated Bioaerosols to Control Indoor Transmission of COVID-19 and Other Infection Diseases
Alina Bisag, Cristiana Bucci, Filippo Capelli, VITTORIO COLOMBO, Giorgio Dirani, Matteo Gherardi, Pasquale Isabelli, Giulia Laghi, Romolo Laurita, Nikta Oveisi, Vittorio Sambri, Industrial Engineering Department; University of Bologna
Abstract Number: 410
Working Group: The Role of Aerosol Science in the Understanding of the Spread and Control of COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases
Abstract
Bioaerosols consist of airborne particles (from 0.001 to 100 μm) originated biologically from plants and animals and can contain living organisms such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Moreover, higher bioaerosol concentrations may be observed in indoors generally associated with human activities that could spread diseases such as influenza, allergies and respiratory syndromes. Transmission via aerosols has shown to be of great importance in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this field, non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasmas, thanks to their blend of bioactive agents (electrons, ions, UV rays and electromagnetic fields), enable the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species having antimicrobial proprieties, related to oxidation of cell membrane, protein molecules and DNA. Several studies demonstrated the cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) assisted inactivation of bioaerosol. In particular, the possibility to use dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) to deactivate bioaerosol could improve air quality and limit the infections diffusion. In this work, experiments aimed at evaluating bioaerosol inactivation by a direct DBD plasma source are presented. The plasma source is driven by a high voltage generator (AlmaPULSE, AlmaPlasma s.r.l.) and it consists of two symmetrical electrodes both covered by a dielectric layer with an interelectrode gap of 2 mm, allowing the flow of bioaerosol through the plasma discharge. A suspension of Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 12228) or purified RNA of SARS COV 2 were used to produce bioaerosol. The DBD source showed the ability to reduce the bioaerosol's bacterial load and destroy the purified RNA, evaluating the integrity of ENRDRP gene by means of real time rt-PCR. These preliminary results demonstrated the possibility to use a non-thermal plasma generated by a dielectric barrier discharge to inactivate bioaerosols containing S. epidermidis and viruses.