Transformative Approach To Investigate the Microphysical Factors Influencing Airborne Transmission of Pathogens
Transformative Approach To Investigate the Microphysical Factors Influencing Airborne Transmission of Pathogens
复制标题
DOI：
10.1128/aem.01543-20
复制
发表时间：
2020-12-01
影响因子：
4.4
通讯作者：
Reid, Jonathan P.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fernandez, Mara Otero;Thomas, Richard J.;Reid, Jonathan P.
全球范围内新爆发的空气传播病原体感染，例如当前的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 大流行，提出了了解影响微生物空气传播生存参数的必要性，以便制定有效的感染控制措施。我们报告了一种新颖的实验策略，TAMBAS（用于空气微生物生存的微物理和生物评估的串联方法），以探索影响气溶胶液滴中空气微生物生存的物理化学和生物过程之间的协同相互作用。这种创新方法提供了对从气溶胶液滴产生到当地环境中的平衡和活力衰减的过程的独特而详细的理解，阐明了先前未描述的衰减机制。使用大肠杆菌 MRE162 作为基准系统，报告了蒸发动力学、溶质吸湿性和浓度、颗粒形态和平衡颗粒大小对空气中存活的影响。对于该系统，我们报告说（i）颗粒结晶不会直接影响微生物寿命，（ii）细菌在液滴干燥和平衡过程中充当结晶核，以及（iii）尺寸和成分变化的动力学似乎比平衡溶质浓度对微生物寿命有更大的影响。重要性本文描述了一种变革性方法，用于识别影响气溶胶液滴中细菌生物腐烂率的物理化学过程。结果表明，蒸发过程以及蒸发过程中气溶胶颗粒的相和形态的变化影响微生物的活力。发现平衡液滴大小会影响空气中细菌的活力。此外，液滴中大肠杆菌 MRE162 的存在不会影响气溶胶的生长/蒸发，但会通过在气溶胶化之前处理培养基来影响气溶胶的动态行为，从而影响培养基的吸湿性；这凸显了雾化液滴中影响吸湿性的无机和有机化学成分的重要性。细菌也充当结晶核。这种新颖的方法和数据对于在医学、兽医、农业和农业领域的生物气溶胶研究中增强对气溶胶存活和感染性的机制理解具有重要意义，包括微生物在大气处理和云形成中的作用。
Emerging outbreaks of airborne pathogenic infections worldwide, such as the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, have raised the need to understand parameters affecting the airborne survival of microbes in order to develop measures for effective infection control. We report a novel experimental strategy, TAMBAS (tandem approach for microphysical and biological assessment of airborne microorganism survival), to explore the synergistic interactions between the physicochemical and biological processes that impact airborne microbe survival in aerosol droplets. This innovative approach provides a unique and detailed understanding of the processes taking place from aerosol droplet generation through to equilibration and viability decay in the local environment, elucidating decay mechanisms not previously described. The impact of evaporation kinetics, solute hygroscopicity and concentration, particle morphology, and equilibrium particle size on airborne survival are reported, using Escherichia coli MRE162 as a benchmark system. For this system, we report that (i) particle crystallization does not directly impact microbe longevity, (ii) bacteria act as crystallization nuclei during droplet drying and equilibration, and (iii) the kinetics of size and compositional change appear to have a larger effect on microbe longevity than the equilibrium solute concentration.IMPORTANCE A transformative approach to identify the physicochemical processes that impact the biological decay rates of bacteria in aerosol droplets is described. It is shown that the evaporation process and changes in the phase and morphology of the aerosol particle during evaporation impact microorganism viability. The equilibrium droplet size was found to affect airborne bacterial viability. Furthermore, the presence of Escherichia coli MRE162 in a droplet does not affect aerosol growth/ evaporation but influences the dynamic behavior of the aerosol by processing the culture medium prior to aerosolization, affecting the hygroscopicity of the culture medium; this highlights the importance of the inorganic and organic chemical composition within the aerosolized droplets that impact hygroscopicity. Bacteria also act as crystallization nuclei. The novel approach and data have implications for increased mechanistic understanding of aerosol survival and infectivity in bioaerosol studies spanning the medical, veterinary, farming, and agricultural fields, including the role of microorganisms in atmospheric processing and cloud formation.