title: Effects of chlorine and chlorine dioxide on human rotavirus infectivity and genome stability.
abstract: Despite the health risks posed by waterborne human rotavirus (HRV), little information is available concerning the effectiveness of chlorine or chlorine dioxide (ClO2), two common disinfectants of public water sources, against HRV and their effects on its genome remain poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of chlorine and ClO2 on purified HRV by using cell culture and RT-PCR to assess virus infectivity and genetic integrity, respectively. The disinfection efficacy of ClO2 was found to be higher than that of chlorine. According to the efficiency factor Hom model, Ct value (mg/L min) ranges required for a 4-log reduction of HRV at 20 °C by chlorine and ClO2 were 5.55-5.59 and 1.21-2.47 mg/L min, respectively. Detection of the 11 HRV genome segments revealed that damage to the 1227-2354 bp of the VP4 gene was associated with the disappearance of viral infectivity by chlorine. However, no complete accordance between culturing and RT-PCR assays was observed after treatment of HRV with ClO2. These results collectively indicate that the current practice of chlorine disinfection may be inadequate to manage the risk of waterborne HRV infection, and offer the potential to monitor the infectivity of HRV adapting PCR-based protocols in chlorine disinfection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Health, Institute of Health and Environmental Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, No. 1 Dali Road, Tianjin 300050, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Zhaoli
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Xinwei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Jingfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Junwen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002713:Chlorine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017606:Chlorine Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D042822:Genomic Instability; D010087:Oxides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012401:Rotavirus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D017606:Chlorine Compounds; D004202:Disinfectants; D010087:Oxides; C060339:VP4 protein, Rotavirus; D002713:Chlorine; C025109:chlorine dioxide