A simple, affordable, nature-enabled antiviral face covering for airborne coronavirus control

Abstract

In response to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, citizens from around the world utilized common household fabrics to prevent infection or spread of the virus at the source. However, these common fabrics have an overall low filtration efficiency to remove viral-laden aerosols. This study aims to improve the performance of these common fabrics by applying antimicrobial proteins as a coating to enhance the capture of viral-laden aerosols. The antiviral proteins are a type of host defense peptide that carries positive charge, and naturally abundant from a tropical plant named Moringa Oleifera. The methods utilize common fabrics such as polyester material, to facilitate immobilization of the protein through simple electrostatic binding, verified by streaming potential. The protocols developed were simple enough to achieve at homes, such as the use of coffee grinders and filters to extract the protein serum, followed by dipping the textile to coat. This method was able to achieve an 85% increase in positive charge, suggesting that our simple dip coating procedure was successful and could be done by citizens at home. Finally, through Integrated Cell Culture-Reverse Transcription-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (ICC-RT-qPCR), using murine hepatitis virus (MHV), as a surrogate to SARS-CoV-2, the serum coating results in a 5-log (99.999%) inactivation of virus in only 15 minutes of contact. Our work presents a new low-cost, natural, and highly effective coating to enhance viral capture of common household textiles that could be prepared by citizens at home to slow down the pandemic and possible future outbreaks.