Diethylpyrocarbonate DEP

Further studies on viral coat function became feasible when it was found that diethylpyrocarbonate (DEP, Baycovine, Naftone Inc., New York) inactivates pohoviruses without impairing the structure and function of the RNA (tested after phenol extraction) (Oberg, 1970 Breindl and Koch, 1972), and without converting the virus particle in any way that makes its RNA sensitive to attack by ribonuclease. In a typical experiment, poliovirus was inactivated by a saturated DEP dilution (1.0%) in phosphate-buffered saline (inactivation more than 7 log units within 30 min at room temperature). However, when the DEP-treated virus was tested with HeLa cells sensitized to infection by viral RNA, the inactivated virus particles showed the same infectivity as isolated RNA. Furthermore, DEP treatment of polioviruses did not alter the major physical properties of the virus, i.e. its sedimentation rate in sucrose and its density in CsCl. Also, the polypeptide composition of native and DEP poliovirus in SDS acrylamide gels are identical (Oberg, 1970 Breindl and Koch, 1972). 

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