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Turbidity-reducing Activity of Influenza Virus and Receptor-destroying Enzyme on Sheep Submandibular Mucoid

Nature volume 172, pages 912–914 (1953)Cite this article

Abstract

A CHARACTERISTIC turbidity develops when polymerized hyaluronic acid is mixed with acidified horse serum; this turbidity, and its destruction by prior incubation with hyaluronidase, is the basis of the turbidity-reducing test for the enzyme1. Solutions of highly purified mucoprotein from the salivary glands of sheep2 also develop turbidity when treated under suitable conditions with acidified horse serum. Moreover, development of turbidity is significantly reduced by previous incubation of the mucoprotein with certain strains of influenza virus, or with the receptor-destroying enzyme of V. cholerae. In this preliminary communication we show that the turbidity-destroying activity of influenza virus is associated with the virus particles themselves, and is presumably a function of the enzymatic properties of the virus3.

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Author notes

  1. J. F. McCREA: James Hudson Brown Memorial Fellow, Yale University School of Medicine.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Yale University, New Haven, 11, Connecticut

    J. F. McCREA

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  1. J. F. McCREA
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McCREA, J. Turbidity-reducing Activity of Influenza Virus and Receptor-destroying Enzyme on Sheep Submandibular Mucoid. Nature 172, 912–914 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/172912b0

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