Purification of virions and nucleocapsids of herpes simplex virus by means of metrizamide and sodium metrizoate gradients.

The generation of density gradients for ultracentrifuging by freezing and thawing was applied to formation of linear density gradients with sodium metrizoate and metrizamide. Using these gradient materials simple and rapid methods for purification of virions and nucleocapsids of herpes virus were elaborated. Using metrizamide the recovery of infectivity was 10-30 per cent, and the purification of virions measured as reduction of host protein was 1700 times. Using metrizoate, the recovery of nucleocapsids was 30-60 per cent and the purification from host DNA and protein was 900 and 1700 times, respectively.