PURIFICATION OF JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS AND ITS ANTIGENIC PARTICLES FROM INFECTED SUCKLING MOUSE BRAINS

Abstract

Effort has been made to purify Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus from suckling mouse brains infected with the Nakayama strain. The brain contains so many extractable contaminating materials that purification of the virus from brain suspension by mere repetition of fractional centrifugation has been difficult (Kitaoka, 1955) . Recently, Nojima et al. (1964) reported a purification procedure of JE virus from infected suckling mouse brains by adsorption technique on hydroxyapatite column. The recent progress of sedimentation techniques has opend a simple and efficient way for purification of many animal viruses from infected tissues and tissue culture cells. The present paper will describe in detail the purification procedure of JE virus from infected suckling mouse brains by the protamine treatment, fractional centrifugation and sucrose gradient centrifugation. Also the structure of virus particles will be discussed in regard to hemagglutinating (HA) and complement fixing (CF) substances and infectious principle.