Research
| Title： | Human viruses lurking in the environment activated by excessive use of COVID-19 prevention supplies |
|---|---|
| First author： | Hu, Zhichao; Yang, Lihua; Han, Jian; Liu, Zishu; Zhao, Yuxiang; Jin, Yihao; Sheng, Yaqi; Zhu, Lizhong; Hu, Baolan |
| Journal： | ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL |
| Years： | 2022 |
| DOI： | 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107192 |
| Abstract： | Due to extensive COVID-19 prevention measures, millions of tons of chemicals penetrated into natural envi-ronment. Alterations of human viruses in the environment, the neglected perceiver of environmental fluctua-tions, remain obscure. To decipher the interaction between human viruses and COVID-19 related chemicals, environmental samples were collected on March 2020 from surroundings of designated hospitals and receivers of wastewater treatment plant effluent in Wuhan. The virus community and chemical concentration were respec-tively unveiled in virtue of virome and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrom-etry. The complex relationship between virus and chemical was ulteriorly elaborated by random forest model. As an indicator, environmental viruses were corroborated to sensitively reflect the ecological disturbance originated from pandemic prevention supplies. Chemicals especially trihalomethanes restrained the virus community di-versity. Confronting this adverse scenario, Human gammaherpesvirus 4 and Orf virus with resistance to tri-halomethanes flourished while replication potential of Macacine alphaherpesvirus 1 ascended under glucocorticoids stress. Consequently, human viruses lurking in the environment were actuated by COVID-19 prevention chemicals, which was a constant burden to public health in this ongoing pandemic. Besides, seg-ments of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected near designated hospitals, suggesting environment as a missing link in the transmission route. This research innovatively underlined the human health risk of pandemic prevention supplies from the virus -environment interaction, appealing for monitoring of environmental viruses in long term. |
