Tetranitromethane as a surface antiviral disinfectant

Tetranitromethane, a protein nitrating agent, was tested for its ability to disinfect surfaces from viruses. Different surfaces on commercially available pocket calculators were pretreated with either the Indiana strain of vesicular stomatitis virus or the Herts' strain of Newcastle disease virus. The calculators surfaces were then sprayed with either tetranitromethane or control solutions. The calculators were incubated for 30 min at ambient temperature, and then the surfaces were wiped with sterile swabs. The swabs were placed into test tubes containing phosphate-buffered saline. Samples of the phosphate-buffered saline were then titered on appropriate cell lines by plaque assay. The results indicated that the amount of vesicular stomatitis virus and Newcastle disease virus recovered from the tetranitromethane-treated surfaces was dramatically decreased compared to the amount of virus recovered from control-treated surfaces. These data suggest that tetranitromethane may be useful to disinfect surfaces from both enveloped and non-enveloped RNA viruses.