Heat treatment of a non-A, non-B hepatitis agent to prepare a vaccine

摘要

A method of treating the agent of human non-A, non-B hepatitis to render it incapable of causing infection which comprises heating said agent at about 60 DEG C. for about 10 hours and recovering the treated protective agent. Furthermore, this treated agent may be utilized as a vaccine, as, for example, inoculating chimpanzees by i.v. inoculation with the heat treated non-A, non-B agent and the animals have been found protected from later challenge by non-A, non-B hepatitis agent. Thus, the second part of the invention resides in the utilization of a heat-treated agent from human plasma later utilized to protect chimpanzees by incoluation and utilization as a vaccine.