CORONA - PlasmaplusCorona - Plasma-based respiratory tract disinfection to reduce SARSCoV-2 viral load in vitro and in vivo; subproject 1

The SARS-COVID2 pandemic has highlighted how susceptible humans are to new corona viruses and the respiratory and systemic diseases that accompany them. In the body, the virus spreads to the lungs and throat. These reservoirs are also instrumental in determining how the virus spreads through the respiratory system, allowing the virus to infect others. A reduction of the viral load in the pharynx and lungs could therefore contribute significantly to reducing infectivity and possibly the severity of the course of the disease. In the sub-project "PlasmaplusCorona-INP" (PPC-INP), a new technology is being explored in this context, which is based on the physical cold plasma process and is being investigated in two different approaches. In the first approach, a plasma jet technology is developed and optimized, which is expected to be suitable for application in the pharynx. In the second approach, plasma-treated air or a plasma-treated air-aerosol mixture will be designed for use as an inhalation gas to reduce the viral load in the lungs. In this subproject, the planning, design, characterization and optimization of the physical plasma processes will be carried out. Furthermore, both processes will be tested in vitro for their antiviral and antimicrobial efficacy in the subproject PPC-INP. In addition, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests are carried out in vitro.