Evaluation of surface-deposited surfactants for the disruption of virus transmission pathways

Abstract: After the expiratory activity of an infected individual, virus particles are entrapped in respiratory droplets deposited on environmental surfaces. The aim of this study is to evaluate surfactants' ability to effectively disrupt the virus transmission pathways through the inactivation of the complex media, majorly composed of mucin and water, surrounding the virus on the surface.

Contact angle measurements of a model human respiratory droplet on six different high-touch environmental surfaces (glass, stainless steel, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, melamine, acrylic, and polytetrafluoroethylene), previously covered with surfactants and wiped, were taken to study the influence of different surface deposited surfactants on the droplet spreading.

We observed a decrease in the contact angle of the model respiratory droplet in the range of 20 to 70 degrees, according to the different substrates studied, if the droplet was deposited on surfaces previously covered with surfactants (Figure 1). In addition, it was acquired how all of the tested surfactants highly reduce the intensity of the main peak in the DLS spectrum, representing the size distribution profile of mucin aggregates, of a value equal to 35-80%, according to the different surfactants tested (Figure 2). Our results suggest that surfactants could help to spread the respiratory droplets on a solid surface, resulting in an accelerated evaporation kinetics. They could break the crosslinking between mucin molecules, disrupting the mucin aggregates, and consequently alter the surface viability of respiratory virus.