Non-enveloped virus inactivation potency of sodium dodecyl sulphate with citric and glutamic acids

Yong Wah Tan ¹ Chwee Fern Bok ¹ Brenda Jun Fang Lim ¹ Li Ying Kong ² Kian Sim Goo ² Yoshiki Ishida ² Jiquan Liu ² Chun Song Chua ² Justin Jang Hann Chu ^1,3,4,5*

• ¹ Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore
• ² Singapore Innovation Center, Procter & Gamble (Singapore), Singapore, Singapore
• ³ Biosafety Level 3 Core Facility, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
• ⁴ Laboratory of Molecular RNA Virology and Antiviral Strategies, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
• ⁵ Infectious Disease Translation Research Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Disinfection is one of the most important methods by which transmission of infectious diseases can be blocked and efficacies differ depending on how they are used as well as the target organism. Small non-enveloped viruses are considerably less sensitive to disinfectants compared to enveloped viruses and vegetative bacteria or fungi and generally require strong protein disrupting chemicals for effective inactivation, limiting their application in personal care products due to associated side effects. Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) is a common anionic surfactant and relatively safe ingredient used in many personal care and hygiene products possessing protein denaturing properties and had been reported to have antimicrobial efficacy against enveloped viruses and bacteria. With the aim of identifying milder disinfectants with broad spectrum activity including efficacy against nonenveloped viruses that are more difficult to inactivate, this study focused on evaluating the combinatorial efficacy of sodium dodecyl sulphate with organic acid (i.e., citric acid) and amino acid (i.e., glutamic acid) on feline calicivirus. Using in vitro quantitative suspension test and electron microscopy, we have demonstrated the virucidal efficacy of SDS combinations with citric or glutamic acids on FCVIn addition, the spectrum of virucidal efficacy may potentially be extended to some human enteroviruses and further research into their varying sensitivities to virus inactivation would be pertinent to the development of these combinations into consumer products targeting nonenveloped viruses.