Immunogenicity of purified, inactivated chikungunya virus in monkeys

Chikungunya (CHIK) virus, harvested from infected BHK-21 cell cultures and highly purified by a method combining zinc acetate precipitation, Sephadex-Sepharose column chromatography, and sucrose density gradient centrifugation, was subjected to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and treatment with formalin. Inactivation of the virus by UV light was apparently a first-order reaction. The virus treated with 0.05% formalin at 4 degrees C was inactivated completely after 7 weeks, but when treated with 0.025% formalin retained its plaque infectivity at least 17 weeks. Both UV- and formalin-inactivated viruses induced production of anti-CHIK neutralizing antibodies in Japanese monkeys with no preimmune antibodies. Judging by the titres of antibodies produced, the immunogenic effect of the UV-irradiated virus was superior to that of the formalin-treated virus.