Testing how to kill Covid-19 virus shells and spikes have revealed that using ultrasound waves is one effective way to kill these.
Soon after the Covid-19 virus spread across the world, scientists and researchers began to propose novel methods for killing the virus. The use of ultraviolet light-emitting robots and drones for the ‘virus breaking purpose was one of the proposed methods that came in quite early.
Now, somewhat relating to the proposed method, MIT scientists have revealed that ultrasound waves equivalent to those used for medical imaging could kill SARS-CoV-2’s shell and spikes. The virus spikes are components that stick onto healthy cells and could be killed using ultrasonic vibrations.
The MIT researchers studied how the Covid-19 virus reacts to vibrations and found out its mechanical response was rippling down to pieces. For this testing, the researchers used a range of ultrasound frequencies.
The MIT team found out that the virus shell started to rupture within seconds of using 25-100 megahertz ultrasound frequencies through the simulations. Moreover, they found out that ultrasound waves had the same effect of breaking the virus present in the air and water.
MIT scientists said that their findings are based on limited data. Hence we can’t completely say we have found a method to fight the Covid-19 effectively. However, the team’s findings through simulations seem to be promising. Many hopes are now connected with the ultrasound method to kill the virus effectively.
“We’ve proven that under ultrasound excitation, the coronavirus shell and spikes will vibrate, and the amplitude of that vibration will be huge, producing strains that could break certain parts of the virus, doing visible damage to the outer shell and possibly invisible damage to the RNA inside,” said Tomasz Wierzbicki, professor of applied mechanics at MIT. “The hope is that our paper will initiate a discussion across various disciplines.”
The MIT researchers used simple physics and mechanics concepts to form a computational model of the Covid-19 spike and shell structure. Once done with this first step, they went forward with their simulations.
The specific properties of the virus’s spike and shell are yet to be found. However, the MIT team’s research sounds like paving the way towards a convincing novel method to kill Covid-19.
“We looked at the general coronavirus family and now are looking specifically at the morphology and geometry of Covid-19,” Wierzbicki said. “The potential is something that could be great in the current critical situation.”
Such a method will provide grounds for fighting Covid-19 while the masses of the population keep getting the vaccine. If successful, it will put a break to the virus’s spread and would also make safe the population who couldn’t get the vaccine until now.
