title: Hierarchically self-organized monolithic nanoporous membrane for excellent virus enrichment.
abstract: Enrichment of viruses is essential for making high dose viral stocks for vaccines and virus-related research. Since the widely used ultracentrifugation for concentrating viral stock requires ultra-high speed rotation, it easily destroys the activity of some viruses, for instance, hepatitis c virus (HCV), which has a fragile structure and low virus titer. We introduce a novel method to concentrate HCV virus in stock by using a hierarchically self-organized monolithic nanoporous membrane made by stepwise anodization. The pores at the top part of the membrane have very regular sizes that are suitable for the perfect filtration of the virus particles in the stock. On the other hand, the remaining part has large pores that maintain high flux and mechanical strength of the membrane under the high pressure (up to 10 bar). The enrichment efficiency of HCV in crude stocks by using the membrane became over 91%, which is four times higher than that (∼22%) obtained by conventionally used centrifugation. A very high efficiency results from the perfect filtration and no damage to the virion particles during the enrichment process, whereas significant damage to the HCV occurs during centrifugation. The hierarchically self-organized monolithic nanoporous membrane could be effectively employed for concentrating various fragile viruses in stocks, for instance, rabies virus and human immunodeficiency virus in addition to HCV virus.
authors.affiliation: National Creative Research Center for Smart Block Copolymers, Department of Chemical Engineering, §Molecular Virology Laboratory, POSTECH Biotech Center, Department of Life Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology , Pohang, Kyungbuk 790-784, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Gumhye
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Minhyeok
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jee
authors.forename: Seung Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Bom-Yi
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung Key
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Jin Kon
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D016174:Hepacivirus / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development; D006801:Humans; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry; D058608:Nanopores; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D014461:Ultracentrifugation; D014771:Virion / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development; D014780:Viruses / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral