Dose absorption of Omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 by electron radiation: Using Geant4-DNA toolkit

Abstract

In this research, the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was simulated and exposed to electron radiation with up to 20 keV energy. Absorbed energy was measured for spike protein, nucleocapsid protein, and envelope of the virus. Simulations were performed by Geant4-DNA in a water environment at temperature of 20 °C and pressure of 1 atm. Since the viral RNA is kept inside the nucleocapsid protein, damage to this area could destroy the viral RNA strand and create an inactive virus. Our findings showed that electron beams with an energy of 2.5 keV could cause a maximum absorption dose and consequently maximum damage to the nucleocapsid and effectively be used for inactivation virus.

Keywords

• Electron beam
• Geant4-DNA
• SARS-CoV-2
• Omicron variant