Question

Can nucleic acids and cellular proteins be removed from virus preparations?

Answer 1

Viral preparations

1. Viruses are infectious agents that replicate inside a host's body.
2. They are neither living nor non-living. e.g., adenovirus, Hepatitis C virus, etc.
3. Mishandling of the virus preparation can cause significant contamination.
4. Components of the host cell (from which the virus cells are extracted) can also contaminate the preparation if the purification is not done correctly.

Separation of nucleic acids & cellular proteins from the virus preparation:

1. Viruses are more resistant to nucleases and proteases than free nucleic acids & proteins.
2. Therefore, enzymatic degradation can be used to eliminate nucleic acids & proteins from several virus preparations.
3. This property of viruses can significantly prevent the chances of getting false results.
4. For example- trypsin and ribonuclease usually degrade cellular ribonucleic acids and proteins. However, virions are left unaltered.