Ultraviolet Inactivation of Chikungunya Virus

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a rapidly emerging arbovirus causing millions of infections in more than 40 countries. CHIKV is typically a biosafety level 3 pathogen in many countries and handling of CHIKV requires a high standard of laboratory safety settings. Many studies require the whole virus to be handled in a biosafety level 2 setting. A potential solution for managing this problem is pathogen inactivation without affecting its antigenicity. In the present study, we attempted to inactivate CHIKV by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation.

Different UV doses were used to inactivate CHIKV. The replication status of the inactivated virus was verified in cell lines. Western blot, electron microscopy, and immune fluorescence assay were used, respectively, to view the antigenicity, structural integrity, and entry of the virus into cell lines.

The inactivation was complete when a UV dose of 0.09 J/cm2 for 3 × 30 s was used and no change in antigenicity and integrity was observed.

The study concludes that the UV-inactivated virus is antigenically stable and could be used in biosafety level 2 settings for different experiments.