Synchronized impulsive stimulated Raman scattering to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 for slowing and stopping the transmission of COVID-19

持续的COVID-19大流行提醒我们新型医疗设备的重要性，这些设备可以快速部署以预防紧急病毒。这种设备必须能够在新的病毒性疾病变得明显时迅速作出反应，而且它们还应该对人类具有本质上的安全性。到目前为止，我们的小组一直在研究使用单一的，高能红外和可见飞秒激光脉冲诱导脉冲受激拉曼散射（ISRS），从而激发病毒衣壳的振动灭活病毒。如果这种振动足够大，它会破坏衣壳中的键，从而使病毒本身失活。然而，高能飞秒激光器是昂贵的，并且这种设备的高成本及其大的占地面积将限制其可及性。 在所提出的项目中，我们假设病毒衣壳中的大幅度振动也可以通过照射一系列超短脉冲来激发，这些超短脉冲具有与衣壳的振动周期同步的皮秒脉冲到脉冲定时（同步ISRS）。这种激光器的峰值功率可能比我们小组目前使用的低几个数量级，从而大大降低了成本。因此，本提案的实验重点是（i）使用同步ISRS获取关于SARS-CoV-2灭活的数据，以及（ii）基于数据设计灭活SARS-CoV-2的设备。我们将与few-cycles Inc.合作。（瓦雷恩，QC），一家在超短紫外激光器方面拥有重要专业知识的公司，他们正在积极寻求减缓和阻止COVID-19的解决方案。 拟议研究的结果将是安全和相对便宜的设备，以防止SARS-CoV-2。该设备可用于消毒医疗设备（如N95口罩），而无需使用有害化学品或破坏性辐射（UVC灭菌已被证明会降低口罩的完整性）。它还可以部署到关键地点（如医院，诊所，长期护理设施）以遏制病毒传播。

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the importance of novel medical equipment that could be quickly deployed to inactivate emergent viruses. Such equipment must be able to respond rapidly to new viral diseases when they become apparent, and they should also be intrinsically safe to humans. Up to now, our group has been studying the inactivation of viruses using single, energetic infrared and visible femtosecond laser pulses to induce impulsive stimulated Raman scattering (ISRS), thereby exciting vibrations of the virus capsid. If this vibration is large enough, it breaks the bond in the capsid, thus inactivating the virus itself. However, energetic femtosecond lasers are expensive, and the high cost of such equipment and its large footprint would limit their accessibility. In the proposed project, we hypothesize that large-amplitude vibrations in the virus capsid could also be excited by irradiating a train of ultrashort pulses with picosecond pulse-to-pulse timings that are synchronous with the vibrational period of the capsid (synchronized ISRS). The peak power of such lasers could be several orders of magnitude lower than that currently used by our group, thus significantly reducing their cost. Therefore, the experimental focus of this proposal is (i) to acquire data on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 using synchronized ISRS, and (ii) to design equipment that inactivates SARS-CoV-2 based on the data. We will collaborate with few-cycles Inc. (Varennes, QC), a company with significant expertise in ultrashort UV lasers, who are actively seeking to find solutions to slow and stop COVID-19. The outcomes of the proposed research would be safe and relatively inexpensive equipment to inactivate SARS-CoV-2. This equipment could be used to disinfect medical equipment (such as N95 masks) without the use of harmful chemicals or damaging radiation (UVC sterilization has been shown to degrade the integrity of masks). It could also be deployed to critical locations (such as in hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities) to contain virus transmission.