1
Nuclear Research Center Negev (NRCN), P.O.B 9001, Beer-Sheva 8419001, Israel
2
Department of Electro-Optics engineering and Photonics, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel
3
The Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Multidisciplinary Research on Aging, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 01 Feb 2023
Accepted: 03 Mar 2023
Published: 07 Mar 2023
Abstract
Currently, low dose radiotherapy (LDRT) is being tested for treating
life-threatening pneumonia in COVID-19 patients. Despite the debates over the
clinical use of LDRT, some clinical trials have been completed, and most are
still ongoing. Ultraviolet C (UVC) irradiation has been proven to be highly
efficient in inactivating the coronaviruses, yet is considerably safer than
LDRT. This makes UVC an excellent candidate for treating COVID-19 infection, especially in case of severe pneumonia as well as the post
COVID-19 pulmonary fibrosis. However, the major challenge in using UVC is
its delivery to the lungs, the target organ of COVID-19, due to its low
penetrability through biological tissues. We propose to overcome this challenge
(i) by using pulsed UVC technologies which dramatically increase the
penetrability of UVC through matter, and (ii) by integrating the pulsed UVC
technologies into a laser bronchoscope, thus allowing UVC irradiation to reach
deeper into the lungs. Although the exact characteristics of such a treatment
should yet to be experimentally defined, this approach might be much safer and
not less efficient than LDRT.
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© 2023 by the authors; licensee SCIEPublish, SCISCAN co. Ltd. This article is an open access article distributed under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
