In Vitro Study on the Direct Effect of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles on Foot and Mouth Disease Virus

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) caused by FMD virus is the most contagious disease of mammals and has a great potential for causing severe economic loss in susceptible cloven-hoofed animals. According to the absence of reciprocal protection among all the serotypes it is difficult to control FMD through vaccination. Therefore in order to prevent spread of FMDV، antiseptics are considered by world health authorities. This study was designed to investigate the antiviral properties of MgO nanoparticles as a disinfectant. Different concentrations of MgO nanoparticles were prepared in RPMI 1640 media and exposed to cell culture (Iran-Razi-Khedmati Bovine Kidney cell line). Cell toxicity was determined by MTT assay. Different concentrations of FMDV (O serotype) were treated with non cytotoxic concentration of MgO nanoparticles and incubated in 4˚C for 1hour and then added to cell culture. TCID50% (50% Tissue Culture Infectious Dose) of the virus as well as treated viruses was assayed by Reed and Munech method. Based on MTT assay، MgO nanoparticles had not any cytotoxic effect on cell culture in concentrations ≤ 250 µg/ ml. Treatment with MgO nanoparticles reduced the titers of viruses about 103. 5 (3162) fold compared to those of the controls. In conclusion، MgO nanopaticles have environmental antiviral effect on FMDV and could be used as disinfectant agent.