Skin safety testing to enable far-UV-C technologies for wide-spread inactivation of SARS-CoV-2

众所周知，紫外线可以灭活导致新冠肺炎大流行的SARS-CoV-2病毒。人们还广泛声称，高能紫外光，即“远紫外线-C”，对人类是“安全的”，尽管这种说法主要是基于动物研究和对人类志愿者的有限研究。预计英国将于2021年开始在公共场所使用远紫外-C。这里建议快速生成安全数据，显示远UV-C是否会导致全光谱紫外线所造成的损害类型(例如，晒伤、DNA损伤、皮肤免疫抑制以及对皮肤微生物群的修改，这是生活在健康人体皮肤中的自然菌群)。我们必须了解远UV-C对人类皮肤的影响，以确保它能够充分发挥作用。我们建议在这里进行以下远UV-C研究项目，以调查这项非常有前景的技术的有效性和安全性：*对急性和慢性远UV-C暴露的DNA损伤*对远UV-C暴露对受损皮肤(例如，受伤的皮肤)的DNA损伤*驻留在皮肤中的免疫细胞对远UV-C的反应(众所周知，UV-B光在皮肤中引起免疫反应，但远UV-C的效果还没有得到评估)*对急性和慢性暴露于远UV-C后的皮肤微生物群的评估。远紫外线-C照射可能会杀死或修改定居在皮肤上的有益菌群的遗传物质，其机制与SARS-CoV-2被灭活的机制相同*远紫外线-C渗透到皮肤的计算机模拟由皮肤模型中产生的数据指导我们建议在我们新的受专利保护的体外活体皮肤模型(TenSkin(Tm))中进行这些实验，这是目前最接近人体皮肤的仿制品。

UV light is known to inactivate SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also widely claimed that high energy UV light, called "far-UV-C", is 'safe for humans', although this claim is based predominantly on animal studies and limited studies in human volunteers. The UK is expected to begin employing far-UV-C in public spaces in 2021\. It is proposed here to _rapidly_ generate safety data showing whether or not far-UV-C causes the types of damage that full-spectrum UV light does (for example, sunburn, DNA damage, immunosuppression of the skin, and modifications to the skin microbiome, which is the natural flora that lives in healthy human skin). It is imperative that we understand the effects of far-UV-C on human skin to ensure it can be deployed to its full effectWe are proposing here to conduct the following far-UV-C research projects to investigate the efficacy and safety profile of this very promising technology:* DNA damage upon acute and chronic far-UV-C exposure* DNA damage to compromised skin (for example, wounded skin) upon far-UV-C exposure* Response of immune cells resident in the skin to far-UV-C (it is known that UV-B light elicits an immune response in skin, but the effect of far-UV-C has not been evaluated)* Evaluation of skin microbiome following acute and chronic exposure to far-UV-C. Far-UV-C irradiation may kill or modify the genetic material of the beneficial flora that colonise the skin by the same mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 is inactivated* Computer simulation of far-UV-C penetration into skin guided by the data generated in the skin modelWe propose to conduct these experiments in our novel patent-protected _ex vivo_ skin model (TenSkin(tm)) which is the closest mimic available to human skin while still on the body.