Synthesis of Viral Ribonucleic Acid by a Chemically Inactivated Influenza Virus

Abstract

IT has been shown that the fowl plague virus, which belongs to the influenza A group, can be inactivated by an ethylene-iminoquinone (Bayer A 139, a gift of the Bayer-Werke, Leverkusen, Germany)¹ or by hydroxylamine^2,3 without losing its antigenic, neuraminidase, or hæmagglutinating activities. Bayer A 139 mainly reacts with the phosphate groups of nucleic acids, and in this way the sugar-phosphate ‘backbone’ is broken^4,5. Hydroxylamine attacks the pyrimidines of the nucleic acids without breaking the RNA-strand⁶. Since during inactivation of the fowl plague virus with both compounds a phenomenon interpreted as multiplicity reactivation was observed^1,3, one should still expect viral RNA-synthesis in cells which were infected with partially or totally inactivated virus. Experiments designed to clarify this point are described here.