Isolation of biologically active components from rabies and other envelope viruses

Most human virus vaccines contain complete virus particles, either inactivated or attenuated. Besides components responsible for induction of neutralizing antibodies, other virus components (e.g. nucleic acids, lipids) are also administered upon vaccination. For envelope viruses the (glyco) proteins of the viral envelope are generally involved in the induction of neutralizing antibodies. Our investigations are focussed on the large scale preparation of these components from several viruses or virus vaccines, such as rabies and influenza. For virus disintegration we have tested several ionic anc nonionic detergents. Triton X-100 gave good results. Separation of solubilized components from the remainder of the virus has been carried out on a small scale by ultracentrifugation. For the purification of influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase we also used gelfiltration with success. The latter process can be scaled up easily. The main problem in the process of virus subunit preparation is the removal of detergent.