Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia 20052, United States.
Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Dynamics, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Jun 21;56(12):8475-8484. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c00732. Epub 2022 Jun 2.
Recent discovery of vesicle-cloaked virus clusters (i.e., viral vesicles) has greatly challenged the central paradigm of viral transmission and infection as a single virion. To understand the environmental transmission of viral vesicles, we used an in vivo model to investigate their environmental persistence and engineering control by disinfection. Murine rotavirus vesicles maintained both their integrity and infectivity after incubation in filtered freshwater and wastewater for at least 7 days, with 24.5-27.5% of the vesicles still intact at 16 weeks after exposure to both waters. Free chlorine disinfection at a dosage of 13.3 mg min L did not decompose murine rotavirus vesicles, and it was much less effective in inactivating rotaviruses inside vesicles than free rotaviruses based on the quantification of rotavirus shedding in mouse stool and rotavirus replication in small intestines. Rotavirus vesicles may be more environmentally transmissible than free rotaviruses regardless of disinfection. Vesicle-mediated transmission could be responsible for vesicles' resistance to disinfection due to an increased multiplicity of infection and/or genetic recombination or reassortment to promote infection. Our work highlights the environmental, biological, and public health significance of viral vesicles, and the findings call for urgent action in advancing disinfection for pathogen control.
最近发现囊泡包裹的病毒簇（即病毒囊泡），这极大地挑战了病毒传播和感染的单一病毒粒子的中心范式。为了了解病毒囊泡的环境传播，我们使用体内模型来研究它们在环境中的持久性以及通过消毒进行的工程控制。鼠轮状病毒囊泡在过滤的淡水和废水中孵育至少 7 天后，其完整性和感染力都得以维持，在暴露于两种水 16 周后，仍有 24.5-27.5%的囊泡保持完整。13.3 毫克/分钟/升的游离氯消毒不能分解鼠轮状病毒囊泡，而且根据鼠粪便中轮状病毒脱落和小肠中轮状病毒复制的定量，它在灭活囊内轮状病毒方面的效果远不如游离轮状病毒。无论是否经过消毒，轮状病毒囊泡的环境传播能力可能都比游离轮状病毒强。囊泡介导的传播可能是由于感染倍数的增加和/或遗传重组或重配促进了感染，从而导致囊泡对消毒的抵抗力。我们的工作突出了病毒囊泡的环境、生物学和公共卫生意义，这些发现呼吁紧急采取行动推进病原体控制的消毒措施。
