Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, have developed a technology for the method of inactivating enveloped viruses by hydrophobic photoactivatable chemical crossing—linking compounds and detergent treatment.
The inactivated viruses may be used as vaccines against the diseases caused by those viruses or as reagents in experimental procedures that require inactivated viral particles.
The compounds diffuse into the lipid bilayer of biological membranes, and UV irradiation will bind to proteins and lipids in this domain—inactivating fusion of enveloped viruses with their corresponding target cells.
The selective binding of these chemical crosslinking agents to protein domains in the lipid bilayer may preserve the structural integrity, therefore the immunogenicity of proteins on the exterior of the inactivated virus. The additional detergent step effectively eliminates the infectivity of any residual viral particles that are not adequately crosslinked.
Applications
- Vaccines for enveloped viruses
- Vaccine for Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Advantages
- Novel method of inactivating enveloped viruses
- May maintain native conformational structures and viral epitopes for generating an effective immune response
Development Status: In vitro data can be provided upon request
Licensing Contact: Kevin W. Chang, Ph.D.; 301-435-5018; changke@mail.nih.gov
