There are mainly the following types of virus preservation solutions:

Classification by Virus Activity

• Inactivated Virus Preservation Solution
  • Principle: Its main components include guanidine salts, surfactants, etc. Guanidine salts can denature viral proteins, destroy the structure of the virus, thus making the virus lose its infectivity. Surfactants can lyse the viral envelope, further accelerating the inactivation of the virus.
  • Characteristics: It has high operational safety, effectively avoiding the risk of infection during the transportation and handling of the virus. It can rapidly lyse the virus and release nucleic acids, facilitating subsequent nucleic acid detection. It has a relatively long preservation time and can maintain the stability of the sample at room temperature.
  • Application Scenarios: Large – scale nucleic acid screening, such as the collection of pharyngeal swab and nasal swab samples for large – scale COVID – 19 virus testing; relevant scenarios for nucleic acid testing of viruses, such as in fever clinics of hospitals and testing at centers for disease control and prevention.
• Non – inactivated Virus Preservation Solution
  • Principle: It contains components that maintain the activity of the virus, such as nutrients like BSA, amino acids, and vitamins, as well as components like buffers and salts that maintain osmotic pressure and pH value, providing a relatively stable living environment for the virus to maintain its infectivity and biological activity.
  • Characteristics: It can be used for experiments that require live viruses, such as virus isolation, culture, virus load determination, and virus antigen detection. However, strict biosafety regulations need to be followed during the operation process to prevent virus leakage and subsequent infection.
  • Application Scenarios: Fundamental research on viruses in scientific research institutions, such as studying the life cycle of viruses and the interaction between viruses and host cells; in the process of vaccine development, for virus culture and attenuation or inactivation treatment; in drug development, for the screening and activity evaluation of antiviral drugs.

Classification by Sample Type

• Pharyngeal Swab and Nasal Swab Virus Preservation Solution
  • Characteristics: Designed according to the characteristics of respiratory samples, it usually contains components that can effectively protect and preserve respiratory viruses, such as having a good preservation effect on influenza viruses and COVID – 19 virus. After sampling, it can quickly fix the virus in the sample, preventing the virus from inactivating in the external environment.
  • Application Scenarios: Used for collecting and preserving pharyngeal swab and nasal swab samples, widely applied in the clinical diagnosis and disease surveillance of respiratory virus infections.
• Sputum Virus Preservation Solution
  • Characteristics: Sputum samples are relatively viscous. The sputum virus preservation solution has special components that can dilute the sputum, fully release the virus, and effectively preserve it. It contains protease inhibitors and other components to prevent the protease in the sputum from damaging the virus.
  • Application Scenarios: Mainly used for the preservation of viruses in sputum samples, suitable for the diagnosis of pulmonary infectious diseases, such as virus detection in diseases like pulmonary tuberculosis and viral pneumonia.
• Tissue Sample Virus Preservation Solution
  • Characteristics: It needs to have stronger tissue – protecting capabilities. It contains a variety of nutrients and antioxidants that can maintain the activity of tissue cells and thus protect the viruses within. It can prevent tissue autolysis and bacterial contamination, ensuring the stable preservation of viruses in tissue samples.
  • Application Scenarios: In pathological diagnosis, it is used to preserve surgically resected tissue samples or biopsy tissue samples to detect whether there is a virus infection, such as detecting the virus – relatedness in tumor tissues.

Classification by Preservation Conditions

• Room – temperature Preservation Virus Preservation Solution
  • Characteristics: Special stabilizers and protectors are added to enable the virus to remain in a relatively stable state at room temperature. It usually has good buffering capacity and antibacterial ability to prevent the virus from inactivating due to temperature fluctuations and microbial contamination.
  • Application Scenarios: Suitable for situations where timely cold – chain transportation is not possible, such as sample collection and transportation in remote areas, and short – term preservation with relatively less strict requirements for preservation time.
• Low – temperature Preservation Virus Preservation Solution
  • Characteristics: It contains cryoprotectants such as glycerol and DMSO, which can protect the virus from ice – crystal damage at low temperatures. Under low – temperature conditions, the metabolic activities of the virus almost stop, enabling the long – term maintenance of the virus’s activity and integrity.
  • Application Scenarios: Commonly used for situations where long – term preservation of virus samples is required, such as the establishment of virus banks and the preservation of precious virus samples. It is also suitable for experiments with high requirements for virus activity, such as virus passage culture and highly sensitive virus detection.