Mechanism of virucidal activity of retinoids: protein removal from bacteriophage phi 6 envelope

The mechanism of the potent virucidal activity of retinol (vitamin A) and retinal (vitamin A aldehyde) was investigated for the interaction of these compounds with a model system enveloped virus, bacteriophage phi 6. The retinoids bind to and inactivate phi 6 without causing large-scale disruption of the virion. Inactivated virions have completely lost the ability to adsorb to host bacteria due to the loss of a viral envelope protein necessary for adsorption.