Marine Drugs and Natural Products

Biography

Biography: Laurent Lebrun

Abstract

During viral epidemics such as influenza, Ebola or SARS many states are unable to afford effective but expensive filtering facepiece respirators (FFP3 or N95 type). Unefficient alternative respiratory protective equipments such as cotton fabrics and medical masks are often used. Several methods have been recently developed for producing low-cost virucidal filters suitable for respiratory protective masks. The use of natural biocide molecules could make a contribution to introduce antimicrobial properties inside cellulose filters. Surface cleaning represents also an essential disinfection procedure for virus elimination from contaminated surfaces. The cleaning by modified wipes containing antiviral compounds is also of major interest. The present work reports the preparation of new antiviral cleaning wipes and filters using seaweeds extracts as antiviral agents. 30 seaweeds extracts containing ulvans, fucoidans, alginates, pectins or polyphenols were tested. The antiviral experiments were first performed on suspensions of T4D bacteriophage of Escherichia coli. Only polyphenols revealed antiviral activity. All polyphenol-grafted cellulose layers exhibited a large improvement in the reduction of the viral concentration (5-log after 20 min). Hence, these materials could be used as virucidal wipes for the virus elimination from contaminated surfaces. Virus filtration experiments were performed by spraying a suspension of bacteriophage through modified layers. The virus reduction was improved 10-fold for monolayer and 4-fold for bi-layers. Finally, two layers were placed inside a commercial medical mask in place of its cellulose layer. The virus reduction was improved 12-fold compared with the original mask. Based on these results, a significant improvement over conventional commercial medical masks was obtained.