BREAKDOWN ACTION OF SOAP ON CORONA VIRUS-HOW SOAP KILLS COVID19

Published: 30 April 2020

By: Njuguna Nyenjeri
& Willy Muigai Mbugua 

Photo: Courtesy WHO

About the Author: Njuguna Nyenjeri is an expert in Microbiology and Biotechnology and a researcher with TRREE certification. He is also the founder of nyenjeri.com which is a new news and jobs website. Willy Muigai is an expert in Microbiology and Biotechnology, a Graduate from the University of Embu. He is also a lab technologist with one firm in Nyeri.  

Coronaviruses

 This is a family of viruses that range from the common cold to more severe respiratory diseases. Coronaviruses are spherical and have an envelope that is studded with spike-like glycoprotein projections. The glycoprotein envelope protects and covers a positive single-stranded RNA genetic material that is responsible for the nucleoproteins. The glycoprotein envelope is responsible for host attachment, penetration, and it is responsible for the antigenic epitope.

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Chemistry of Coronavirus

Coronaviruses are covered with a fatty envelope that serves as its strength but has been used by scientists to control the virus. Fatty envelope helps the viruses to attach to human skin that is also fatty. The fatty envelope makes the virus hydrophobic and thus it cannot be washed away with water alone. Despite these advantages, the fatty envelope makes the virus to be easily targeted and destroyed by soap. The soap chemical formula is RCOO-Na+. The hydro repellant side attaches to the fatty envelope, whereby this intrusion breaks the virus envelope as they are not strongly bonded together.

Saponification

Saponification is a name coined by chemists to refer to the chemical reactions involved in the soap-making process. The saponification process involves mixing strong bases such as Sodium hydroxide with fats or oils. Basic sodium hydroxide is also referred to as lye. The mixture of fat and lye is heated to increase the rate of reaction and make the process fast. Long bonds that connect the fat molecules to what is referred to as the backbone are broken by lye in the presence of a heat source. This reaction produces glycerol and three more fatty acid molecules that make the soap. This chemical formula is NaOH + RCOOH = RCOO-Na+

Fat’s and Water’s Chemistry

The structure of fats entails glycerol bonded to 3 fatty acids and 2 atoms of Oxygen in each side as shown in this chemical formula (C54H108O6). Fats do not mix with water. This is attributed to the difference of their polarity and in this case, water is polar while fats and oils are nonpolar. Polar molecules are molecule with separated charges; this means that one part of the molecule is positively charged while the other is negatively charged. On the other hand, nonpolar molecules are molecules whose charges are evenly distributed over the molecule. Polar molecules dissolve like molecules that are polar to but they can’t dissolve nonpolar molecules. Soaps are considered to be dual and thus enable nonpolar and polar molecules to mix freely. Since water molecules are held by Hydrogen bonds (H2O), then it means the solvent must break these bonds, and to do that it needs polar ends which will attach to the water molecules and break the H=H bonds. Fats do not have these polar ends.  

Soap’s Success in Controlling Coronaviruses

The soap has two parts and this is hydrophobic or water-hating part or fat-loving part and hydrophilic part or the water loving-part. Soap can be visualized as having a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail made up of long hydrocarbon chains.

Figure 1: The Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic ends of soap's hydrophobic chain, Source  

This is the secret of the soap’s success. The hydrophilic part of the soap wants to remain in the water while the hydrophobic part attaches to the fats and oils. This is how soaps dissolve fat in water and ease the process of cleaning greasy surfaces.

Coronavirus busting

Coronaviruses tend to attach to greasy skin because it has a hydrophobic outer surface. Washing hands with water alone cannot wash away the coronaviruses on the skin. Lipid membrane of coronaviruses is said to be Achilles heels this is because it is easily destroyed by soap. Washing hands using water and soap does not only wipe away the virus but it disintegrates its lipid membrane and destroys it. The water-fearing side of the fatty envelope (RCOO) will attach to the envelope leading to its destruction. 

Figure 2 Soap Structural Formula

This process takes an average of twenty seconds, to reach all the viruses on the hands' surface, and the disintegration process to be successful.  

Other Chemical Disinfectants Used to Slow Down the Spread of Covid-19

Apart from soap, there are other chemicals that that be used to disinfect surfaces and destroy coronaviruses. Detergents can be used to clean surfaces and get rid of coronaviruses. Detergents apply the same principle applied by soap when disintegrating the virus. Apart from detergents hand sanitizers can also be used to slow the spread of coronaviruses. These hand sanitizers for them to be effective they must be alcohol-based and must have an alcohol concentration of at least 60% for them to be effective.

Peptides and Proteins

Proteins and peptides are large molecules that occur naturally and serve different purposes in the body to ensure that the body functions properly. Both the peptides and proteins have the same building blocks that are the amino acids that are held together by peptide bonds. The difference between the peptides and proteins is that peptides are made up of shorter amino acid chains than the proteins. Peptides found in bodies have an average of twenty amino acids while proteins have long amino acid chains that range from one hundred amino acids and above.

Roles of Proteins in Viral Infection

Viruses have proteins that are either viral components or are viral products. Viral proteins are grouped based on their role in the viral infection and there are structural, non-structural, accessory, and regulatory viral proteins. Proteins found on the viral capsid are responsible for attachment to the host cell, penetration of the host cell, and evasion of pesticides or other drugs targeting the virus. Viral replicon proteins interact with host cell proteins to form replicons complexes. Viral proteins are responsible for immunomodulation; these proteins enable the virus to evade host immune response.

Peptide Drugs that can be used to treat the Coronaviruses

In efforts to stop the spread of coronaviruses chemists have developed a candidate drug that aims to block the entry of coronaviruses in host cells. The developed drug is a peptide drug that mimics the peptides found on the surface of human cells. The peptide binds the proteins used by coronaviruses to invade human cells thus disarming it.