Major target for UV-induced complete loss of HIV-1 infectivity: A model study of single-stranded RNA enveloped viruses

Deep ultraviolet light (UV) is useful for the disinfection of microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses. Although genome damage by UV has been widely accepted, adverse effects on activity and/or function viral proteins envelope components are poorly documented. Worthy note, observed unfavorable UV-effects viruses only insufficiently analyzed in association with reduction infectivity. In this study, we aimed to clarify which component virions affected significantly correlates loss infectivity using HIV-1 as a model single-stranded RNA enveloped Using our irradiation apparatus at three wavelengths (265, 280, 300 nm), first quantitatively determined power density period each wavelength required A heat-treated sample control drastically reduced virion-associated reverse transcriptase (RT) Gag-p24 level. The UV-irradiated samples wavelengths, completely lacking infectivity, showed p24 levels similar those without irradiation. While RT was gradually decreased dependent manner, did not explain UV. Remarkably, virological assays revealed that entry efficiency virus comparable Importantly, result shows that, even exposed various lethal level, still maintain their composed host lipid bilayer proteins. sharp contrast, UV-induced shown semiquantitative RT-PCR correlated well indicating it major determinant inactivation degree found be distinct among regions analyzed. This probably due different nucleotide sequences genomic amplified PCR. Our data clearly demonstrate principal mechanism provide information contributing improvement UV-based technology microorganisms.