Heat inactivation of the M iddle E ast respiratory syndrome coronavirus

India Leclercq (1, 2) , Christophe Batéjat (1, 2) , Ana Burguière (1, 2) , Jean‐Claude Manuguerra (2, 1)

1 CIBU - Cellule d'Intervention Biologique d'Urgence - Laboratory for Urgent Response to Biological Threats
2 IP - Institut Pasteur [Paris]

The culture supernatants of the emerging Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) were submitted to three temperatures over time and tested for infectivity by TCID50 method on Vero E6 cells. At 56°C, almost 25 minutes were necessary to reduce the initial titre by 4 log10 . Increasing temperature to 65°C had a strong negative effect on viral infectivity as virucidy dropped significantly to 1 minute. On the contrary, no significant decrease in titre was observed after 2 hours at 25°C. These data might be useful in establishing biosafety measures in laboratories against MERS-CoV.

Keywords: Heat; MERS-CoV; inactivation

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

India Leclercq, Christophe Batéjat, Ana Burguière, Jean‐Claude Manuguerra. Heat inactivation of the M iddle E ast respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 2014, 8 (5), pp.585-586. ⟨10.1111/irv.12261⟩. ⟨pasteur-03915081⟩