VirusImpact

Objectives:

It is a well-known fact that numerous infectious diseases are spread via droplets or aerosols in the air. Yet there is a significant lack of reliable data on dispersion, aging, and deposition of Breath Air Aerosol (BAA) carrying viruses. One main reason for this shortcoming is the limited comparability of the numerous studies in the field, which is caused by the fact that these studies are carried out with a wide range of different particle systems.

The release process by the human respiratory tract, which is responsible for the distribution of viruses in various (size) fractions and number densities inside BAA articles, is not accessible by these systems. However, the release conditions are responsible for the further fate of the particles, such as drying, aging, sedimentation, but also for the infectivity of the enclosed viruses. These effects can only be assessed by clinical tests with patients (e.g. influenza or COVID-19 patients), implicating significant health risk as well as a considerable health burden for the patient.

The aim of this project is to establish the TT virus (TTV) as non-infectious, universal model virus system for studies on viruses in BAA. Depending on the world region, between 10 and more than 90% of all adults carry this virus, which is considered not to cause any negative health effects. As the TT virus is also contained in the respiratory tract and in BAA, it will be used as model organism in this project.

For that purpose, a novel sampling device, comprising a water condensation chamber and an impinger, will be constructed to sample viruses contained in BAA with high efficiency. Collected TTV will be detected and analyzed by biomolecular methods such as PCR and qPCR.

Responsible:

Florian Opperer (florian.opperer@tum.de)
Nico Chrisam (nico.chrisam@tum.de)

Funding:

DFG

Partners:

Max von Pettenkofer-Institut