Enveloped
viruses pose a critical health threat to human beings.
Photodynamic inactivation shows promise but requires a relatively
long time of irradiation or a high power intensity. Meanwhile, the
unclear role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in inactivation hampers
the development of effective antivirus equipment. Here, we present
that protoporphyrin IX-loaded silica nanoparticles show high efficiency
in inactivating enveloped viruses. Representative enveloped viruses,
including herpes simplex virus 1, vesicular stomatitis virus, and
pseudoviruses SARS-CoV-2, were almost fully inactivated under <16
min of irradiation of a halogen tungsten lamp. By a quantitative polymerase
chain reaction technique, we found that the viruses lost their ability
to bind cells after the photoinactivation. The mechanistic study further
showed that the nanoparticle-based photodynamic effect disrupted the
receptor-binding proteins on the envelope rather than destroying the
whole virus structure by ROS. Our results suggest a highly efficient
approach to disinfecting enveloped viruses and may shed light on designing
photodynamic materials for breaking spreading chains in epidemics.