| 摘要 |
<p>A process is provided for the use of heat to inactivate (abolish the infectivity of) retroviruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus, type 1 (HIV-1). At the same time that it abolishes the infectivity of retroviruses, this process is able to preserve a substantial fraction of the antigenicity, or to enhance the antigenicity, of the original infectious virus preparations. The retrovirus elements whose antigenicity is enhanced or preserved includes various immunologically-active elements (epitopes) that are highly conserved, i.e., present on substrains of the virus isolated at various times and/or geographical locations. Thus, this process is advantageous for applications that call for retrovirus preparations whose infectivity has been abolished but whose antigenicity has been enhanced, preserved, or substantially preserved, no matter when or where the retrovirus was isolated. Such applications would include, but would not be limited to, virus used as reference reagents, in diagnostic tests, or in preventive vaccines.</p> |
