title: Evaluation of methods measuring the capsid integrity and/or functions of noroviruses by heat inactivation.
abstract: Attempts were made to evaluate methods measuring the capsid integrity and/or functions of noroviruses (NoVs) following heat treatment. Intact viruses (Murine Norovirus-1 [MNV-1] and human NoV GII.4), virus like particles (VLPs) and P particles (expressed in vitro from the protruding domain of the viral capsid) of NoVs were used in this study. Following heat treatment, no significant difference of viral titer of MNV-1 versus NoV GII.4 was observed by RNase One RT-PCR or cell-binding RT-PCR, although cell-binding RT-PCR (to measure the capsid functions) revealed higher reductions than RNase One RT-PCR (to measure the capsid integrity). These results indicate that the function assay for receptor binding is more sensitive than the capsid integrity assay to measure the protected viral RNA. MNV-1 could be used as a surrogate for human NoVs by heat inactivation from the perspective of capsid integrity and/or functions. The heat resistance varied among different GI and GII NoV strains when their P particles were studied.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Dan.Li@UGent.be
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Leen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baert
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Weiming
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Els
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Van Coillie
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Mieke
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uyttendaele
mesh_terms: D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D050296:Microbial Viability / Q000528:radiation effects*; D029322:Norovirus / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D019251:Nucleocapsid / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D019562:Viral Load; D038301:Virus Inactivation