Experiments demonstrated the possible antiviral abilities of copper

Anti-Viruses

As early as 1958, experiments demonstrated the possible antiviral abilities of copper and copper compounds.

In 2007, Keevil's team demonstrated the effectiveness of copper against influenza A virus. They inoculated coupons of either copper or stainless steel with 2 × 10⁶ virus particles and incubated the coupons at room temperature for 1 to 24 h. After 24 h, 5 × 10⁵ infectious virus particles were observed, in contrast to 5 × 10² infectious virus particles on copper.

In a similar study, they looked at the survival of norovirus on stainless steel and compared it to that on copper alloys; they demonstrated a significant reduction of active norovirus after 2 h on copper alloys. Furthermore, they found that inactivation of the virus was dependent on humidity and temperature; there was a lower rate of inactivation when the inoculum was suspended in a larger volume, such that evaporation was slower at the lower temperature.

Anti-Fungi

In contrast to the antibacterial effect, the antifungal ability of copper has not been studied extensively. Weaver et al. studied the effectiveness of copper against various fungi (Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium chrysogenum, and Candida albicans). Copper coupons were inoculated with 20 μl of a suspension of fungal spores for exposure times varying from 0 to 576 h at room temperature and humidity. Surviving spores were visualized using the fluorochrome FUN-1. They found that copper was able to kill all the fungi except Aspergillus niger. Moreover, copper was able to prevent the germination of fungal spores. The mechanism by which fungi are killed on copper was found to be similar to the mechanism by which bacteria are killed. Quaranta et al. found that the antifungal effect starts with extensive fungal membrane damage, which was followed by enlargement and disappearance of vacuoles and oxidative stress.

（To be continued）

Copy from cmr.asm.org

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