Inactivation of hantaan virus-containing samples for subsequent investigations outside biosafety level 3 facilities

Objectives: The potential risk of accidental infection by hantaviruses in a clinical or research laboratory necessitates special precautionary measures. A biosafety program must address handling and disposal of infectious materials as well as appropriate virus inactivation or depletion procedures to permit necessary further processing of specimens outside the biosafety level 3 laboratory. Methods: To study the elimination of hantavirus infectivity, the effects of different chemical and physical inactivation and depletion procedures were investigated on Hantaan virus- containing materials. An infectivity assay for hantaviruses was utilised to verify these procedures which are commonly preceding investigations such as ELISA, flow cytometry analysis, Western blot or immunofluorescence assay. Results: Chemical inactivation with methanol, paraformaldehyde, acetone/methanol and detergent-containing lysis buffer as well as physical forces such as UV irradiation and filtration efficiently reduced viral infectivity in infected cells and their supernatants below the detection limit. Conclusion: The virus inactivation and depletion methods described herein are suitable to prepare non-infectious samples for further use in immunological, virological and cell-biological assays. Copyright (C) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.