IVACE - FEDER COVIR

Objective

The general objective of the project is to study strategies for controlling respiratory viruses in the food industry. The project has a holistic approach considering three key aspects:

where and how long the virus can remain,
how it can be eliminated,
how to prevent and/or mitigate the action/infection of the virus.

To achieve the general objective, the following specific objectives are proposed:

Develop tools that allow monitoring the incidence and prevalence over time of respiratory viruses on various surfaces related to food manufacturing: food and inert surfaces
Optimisation of the tools developed to obtain maximum sensitivity for monitoring respiratory viruses in the food industry.
Investigate the action of physical and chemical technologies (based on the individual or combined application of heat treatments, ozone, ultraviolet radiation, virucides), to define methods and systems for inactivating respiratory viruses.
Evaluate the applicability of the defined virus inactivation methodologies in the food industry, with an emphasis on low-energy-consumption methodologies, enabling continuous decontamination, compatible with the presence of personnel and environmentally friendly.
Investigate the biological targets that allow stimulation of the immune system of the respiratory tract to identify monitoring biomarkers.
Reproduce in vitro the immune system of the respiratory tract based on the use of complex cellular models, as a model to evaluate immunomodulatory and antiviral compounds.
Develop in vitro tools based on the use of cellular models and molecular biomarkers for the identification and evaluation of immunomodulatory compounds.
Investigate the action of oral compounds with immunomodulatory effect against viruses and/or pathogens of the respiratory tract.

Activities

Study of the prevalence and persistence of viruses on surfaces and food
Strategies for the decontamination of surfaces and environments from respiratory viruses
Strategies for the identification and search for compounds with immunomodulatory and antiviral effect
Communication and dissemination
Transfer and promotion of results
Management and coordination

Main results:

Development of a diagnostic tool using a molecular technique for the analysis of SARS-CoV-2 on inert and food surfaces, which verifies hygienic conditions and disinfection effectiveness before carrying out industrial, commercial and recreational activities.
Methodologies have been developed that allow the evaluation of the virucidal effect of various physical and chemical agents for application in the industrial field.
Development of two cellular models that allow evaluation of the antiviral effect of bioactive compounds on the immune system.
Definition of the conditions for an induced culture of macrophage cells with supernatant from infected lung fibroblast cells.
Validation of the model for evaluating the effect on the immune system through the integrated system consisting of Dynamic Digesters and the cellular co-culture model of lung cells and macrophage cells.