Person:
Quintana Benito, Jaime

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First Name
Jaime
Last Name
Quintana Benito
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/85761
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
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Óptica y Optometría
Department
Óptica
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Author: Alda Serrano, Javier × Has files: true ×

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    Quantitative probability estimation of light-induced inactivation of SARS-CoV-2
    (Scientific Reports, 2024) Quintana Benito, Jaime; Alda, Irene; Alda Serrano, Javier
    During the COVID pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, studies have shown the efficiency of deactivating this virus via ultraviolet light. The damage mechanism is well understood: UV light disturbs the integrity of the RNA chain at those locations where specific nucleotide neighbors occur. In this contribution, we present a model to address certain gaps in the description of the interaction between UV photons and the RNA sequence for virus inactivation. We begin by exploiting the available information on the pathogen’s morphology, physical, and genomic characteristics, enabling us to estimate the average number of UV photons required to photochemically damage the virus’s RNA. To generalize our results, we have numerically generated random RNA sequences and checked that the distribution of pairs of nucleotides susceptible of damage for the SARS-CoV-2 is within the expected values for a random-generated RNA chain. After determining the average number of photons reaching the RNA for a preset level of fluence (or photon density), we applied the binomial probability distribution to evaluate the damage of nucleotide pairs in the RNA chain due to UV radiation. Our results describe this interaction in terms of the probability of damaging a single pair of nucleotides, and the number of available photons. The cumulative probability exhibits a steep sigmoidal shape, implying that a relatively small change in the number of affected pairs may trigger the inactivation of the virus. Our light-RNA interaction model quantitatively describes how the fraction of affected pairs of nucleotides in the RNA sequence depends on the probability of damaging a single pair and the number of photons impinging on it. A better understanding of the underlying inactivation mechanism would help in the design of optimum experiments and UV sanitization methods. Although this paper focuses on SARS-CoV-2, these results can be adapted for any other type of pathogen susceptible of UV damage.
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    Geometrical limits for UV-C inactivation of pathogens
    (Optik, 2022) Quintana Benito, Jaime; Álvarez Fernández-Balbuena, Antonio; Martínez Antón, Juan Carlos; Vázquez Moliní, Daniel; Prada, Luis; Estrada, Luis; Alda Serrano, Javier
    The inactivation of pathogens through the irradiation of ultraviolet light depends on how light propagates within the medium where the microorganism is immersed. A simple geometrical optics analysis, and a fluence evaluation reveal some reservoirs where the pathogen may hide and be weakly exposed to the incoming radiation. This geometrical hide-outs also generate a tail in the plot of the total inactivation plot vs. the incoming fluence. We have analyzed these facts using geometrical optics principles and illumination engineering computational packages. The results obtained from previous biomedical measurements involving SARS-CoV-2 have been used to evaluate the inactivation degree for an spherical geometry applicable to airborne pathogens, and for an spherical cap geometry similar to that used in biomedical experiments. The case presented here can be seen as the worst-case scenario applicable under collimated illumination.