Capillary electrophoresis of viruses, subviral particles and virus complexes

CZE and CIEF were so far applied to the analysis of tobacco mosaic virus, Semliki forest virus, human rhinovirus, adenovirus, norovirus and the bacteriophages T5 and MS2. The concentration of viral or subviral particles, of capsid proteins and viral genomes were determined, their electrophoretic mobilities and pI values were measured and bioaffinity reactions between viruses and antibodies, antibody fragments and receptor fragments were assessed. The role of detergents added to the BGE to obtain reproducible electrophoretic conditions was elucidated. The analytes were detected via their UV-absorbance or via fluorescence after derivatization of the viral capsid, the nucleic acid, or both. A new dimension to the detection is added by the possibility of making use of the viral infectivity. At least in theory, this allows for the unequivocal identification of a single infectious virus particle after collection at the capillary outlet. This review summarizes the 25 papers so far published on this topic.