Synthetic Microbial Surrogates Consisting of Lipid Nanoparticles Encapsulating DNA for the Validation of Surface Disinfection Procedures

Abstract

Effective cleaning and disinfection procedures are an integral part of good manufacturing practice and in maintaining hygiene standards in health-care facilities. In this study, a method to validate such cleaning and disinfection procedures of surfaces was established employing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) encapsulating DNA. It was possible to determine and distinguish between the physical cleaning effect (dilution) and the chemical cleaning effect (disintegration) on the LNPs during the cleaning and disinfection procedure (wiping). After treatment with 70 v % ethanol as a disinfectant and SDS solution as a cleaning agent, LNPs showed log 10 reductions of 4.5 and 4.0, respectively. These values are similar to the log 10 reductions exhibited by common bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens. Therefore, LNPs pose as useful tools for cleaning validation with advantages over the already existing tools and enable a separate detection of dilution and chemical disinfectant action.

A bacteriophage-based validation of a personal protective equipment doffing procedure to be used with high-consequence pathogens

“…Thus, the aim of our interventions was to prevent viable selfcontamination. We note that although other methods exist for analyzing the antiviral and disinfection qualities of PPE and its ensembles, 11,12 we elected to focus exclusively on how this ensemble performed in the transfer of pathogens.…”