Ozone Disinfection for Elimination of Bacteria and Degradation of SARS-CoV2 RNA for Medical Environments

Pathogenic bacteria and viruses in medical environments can lead to treatment complications and hospital-acquired infections. Current disinfection protocols do not address hard-to-access areas or may be beyond line-of-sight treatment, such as with ultraviolet radiation. The COVID-19 pandemic further underscores the demand for reliable and effective disinfection methods to sterilize a wide array of surfaces and to keep up with the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). We tested the efficacy of Sani Sport ozone devices to treat hospital equipment and surfaces for killing Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and Deinococcus radiodurans by assessing Colony Forming Units (CFUs) after 30 min, 1 h, and 2 h of ozone treatment. Further gene expression analysis was conducted on live E. coli K12 immediately post treatment to understand the oxidative damage stress response transcriptome profile. Ozone treatment was also used to degrade synthetic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA as assessed by qPCR CT values. We observed significant and rapid killing of medically relevant and environmental bacteria across four surfaces (blankets, catheter, remotes, and syringes) within 30 min, and up to a 99% reduction in viable bacteria at the end of 2 h treatment cycles. RNA-seq analysis of E. coli K12 revealed 447 differentially expressed genes in response to ozone treatment and an enrichment for oxidative stress response and related pathways. RNA degradation of synthetic SARS-CoV-2 RNA was seen an hour into ozone treatment as compared to non-treated controls, and a non-replicative form of the virus was shown to have significant RNA degradation at 30 min. These results show the strong promise of ozone treatment of surfaces for reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infections and as a method for degradation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.