Ozone Microbubbles to eliminate Tulane Virus

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11154720/

This study investigated the efficacy of low-dose ozone microbubble

solution and conventional aqueous ozone as inactivation agents against

Tulane virus samples in water over a short period of time. Noroviruses

are the primary cause of foodborne illnesses in the US, and the development

of effective inactivation agents is crucial. Ozone has a high oxidizing ability

and naturally decomposes to oxygen, but it has limitations due to its low

dissolution rate, solubility, and stability. Ozone microbubbles have been

promising in enhancing inactivation, but little research has been done on

their efficacy against noroviruses. The study examined the influence of the

dissolved ozone concentration, inactivation duration, and presence of organic

matter during inactivation. The results showed that ozone microbubbles had

a longer half-life (14 ± 0.81 min) than aqueous ozone (3 ± 0.35 min). After 2,

10, and 20 min postgeneration, the ozone concentration of microbubbles

naturally decreased from 4 ppm to 3.2 ± 0.2, 2.26 ± 0.19, and 1.49 ± 0.23 ppm

and resulted in 1.43 ± 0.44, 0.88 ± 0.5, and 0.68 ± 0.53 log₁₀ viral reductions,

respectively, while the ozone concentration of aqueous ozone decreased from

4 ppm to 2.52 ± 0.07, 0.43 ± 0.05, and 0.09 ± 0.01 ppm and produced 0.8 ± 0.28,

0.29 ± 0.41, and 0.16 ± 0.21 log₁₀ reductions against Tulane virus, respectively

(p = 0.0526), suggesting that structuring of ozone in the bubbles over the applied

treatment conditions did not have a significant effect, though future study with

continuous generation of ozone microbubbles is needed

This article demonstrates that aqueous ozone and ozone microbubbles produced

more than 1 log₁₀ reduction against Tulane virus over a relatively short duration

of exposure, including in the presence of a relatively high organic load (FBS media).

After noncontinuous treatment of pregenerated disinfectants, aqueous ozone

produced an inactivation effect only in the first 2 min and ozone microbubbles

maintained the inactivation efficacy for 10 min. These results suggest that future

work investigating a continuous production of aqueous ozone or ozone microbubbles

over longer periods in aqueous applications relevant to foods implicated in norovirus

transmission could be of value. This study suggests that future work evaluating the

antiviral efficacy of ozone microbubbles against nonenveloped viruses in various

matrices, which has been hitherto underexplored, is warranted.