Viruses chemical agent effects

In most situations, rapid resumption of operations will depend on effective decontamination of installations, personnel, and equipment. This is especially true for persistent chemical agents and spore-forming bacteria and some viruses. 

Sandia Laboratories, in collaboration with EnviroFoam, has commercialized a product that is effective in the decontamination of materials exposed to chemical agents as well as to some pathogenic viruses and bacteria.7 This product consists of several chemicals, including some enzymes, and has been tested at several sites for different types of contamination. 

The final step normally involves treating the water with a chemical agent to ensure the destruction of bacteria. Ozone is more effective, but chlorine is less expensive. Liquefied CI2 is dispensed from tanks through a metering device directly into the water supply. The amount used depends on the presence of other substances with which the chlorine might react and on the concentrations of bacteria and viruses to be removed. The sterilizing action of chlorine is probabty due not to CI2 itself but to hypochlorous acid, which forms when chlorine reacts with water ... 

Techniques such as sterilization, pasteurization, or disinfection operate on the basis of the effects of heat, radiation, or chemical agents on viability of cells (bacteria, viruses), while filtration and membrane techniques act mainly mechanically. Even though the mechanisms of desactivation are quite different, similar basic concepts can be applied in most of these cases. 

Despite these intense efforts to test different chemical modifications, there is so far little success in developing potent and safe antivirals. For hepatitis C virus (HCV), McHutchison et al. reported in vivo side effects of a 20-nucleotide PS-modified ohgonucleotide (ISIS-14803) (McHutchison et al. 2006). In a test group of 28 patients, only 3 patients responded to the treatment by a reduction in the HCV viral load. The researchers concluded that further studies are needed to evaluate this novel agent and its side effects. Previously, ISIS Pharmaceuticals reported a 3.8 log reduction in plasma virus in patients with chronic HCV infection, using ISIS-14803 (www.isispharm.com). 

The effect of chemical and physical agents on viruses 9 The problems of viral chemotherapy... 

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites their replication depends primarily on synthetic processes of the host cell. Consequently, to be effective, antiviral agents must either block viral entry into or exit from the cell or be active inside the host cell. As a corollary, nonselective inhibitors of virus replication may interfere with host cell function and produce toxicity. The search for chemicals that inhibit virus-specific functions is currently one of the most active areas of pharmacologic investigation. 

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