While one of the biggest problems we are facing today is water scarcity, enormous quantities of water are still being used in irrigation. If contaminated, this water can act as an effective pathway for the spread of disease-causing agents, like viruses. Here, we present a novel, environmentally friendly method known as cold atmospheric plasma for inactivation of viruses in water used in closed irrigation systems. We measured the plasma-mediated viral RNA degradation as well as the plasma-induced loss of viral infectivity using potato virus Y as a model virus due to its confirmed water transmissibility and economic as well as biological importance. We showed that only 1 min of plasma treatment is sufficient for successful inactivation of viruses in water samples with either high or low organic background. The plasma-mediated inactivation was efficient even at markedly higher virus concentrations than those expected in irrigation waters. Obtained results point to reactive oxygen species as the main mode of viral inactivation. Our laboratory-scale experiments confirm for the first time that plasma has an excellent potential as the eukaryotic virus inactivation tool for water sources and could thus provide a cost-effective solution for irrigation mediated plant virus transmission. The outstanding inactivation efficiency demonstrated by plasma treatments in water samples offers further expansions of its application to other water sources such as reused wastewater or contaminated drinking waters, as well as other plant, animal, and human waterborne viruses, ultimately leading to the prevention of water scarcity and numerous human, animal, and plant infections worldwide.

中文翻译：

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冷大气等离子体是一种用于灭活水样中马铃薯病毒Y的新方法。

虽然我们今天面临的最大问题之一是缺水，但灌溉中仍在使用大量水。如果被污染，这些水可以充当传播诸如病毒之类的致病因子的有效途径。在这里，我们提出了一种新颖的，对环境友好的方法，称为冷大气等离子体，用于灭活封闭灌溉系统中的水中病毒。我们使用马铃薯病毒Y作为模型病毒，测量了血浆介导的病毒RNA降解以及血浆诱导的病毒感染力的丧失，这是由于其证实了水的透过性，经济和生物学重要性。我们显示，仅用1分钟的等离子体处理就足以成功灭活具有高或低有机背景的水样中的病毒。血浆介导的灭活是有效的，即使病毒浓度明显高于灌溉水中的预期浓度。所得结果表明活性氧是病毒灭活的主要方式。我们的实验室规模的实验首次确认血浆具有作为水源真核病毒灭活工具的巨大潜力，因此可以为灌溉介导的植物病毒传播提供经济有效的解决方案。水样中通过等离子体处理所表现出的出色的灭活效率，使其在其他水源（如再利用的废水或受污染的饮用水以及其他植物，动物和人类水传播的病毒）中的应用进一步扩展，最终导致了对水的预防稀缺和众多的人，动物，