Purification of cell culture-derived influenza virus A/Puerto Rico/8/34 by membrane-based immobilized metal affinity chromatography.

The presented study focuses on the feasibility of immobilized metal affinity chromatography for purification of Madin Darby canine kidney cell culture-derived influenza virus particles. Therefore, influenza virus A/Puerto Rico/8/34 was screened for adsorption to different transition metal ions attached to iminodiacetic acid. Subsequently, capturing of the same virus strain using zinc-modified iminodiacetic acid membrane adsorbers was characterized regarding viral recoveries, host cell nucleic acid and total protein depletion as well as zinc-ion-leaching. In addition, the effect of the imidazole proton pump on virus stability was studied based on the hemagglutination activity. During adsorption in the presence of 1M sodium chloride the majority of virus particles were recovered in the product (64% hemagglutination activity). Host cell nucleic acid and total protein content were reduced to approximately 7 and 26%, respectively. This inexpensive and rapid method was applied reproducibly for influenza virus A/Puerto Rico/8/34 preparations on the laboratory scale. However, preliminary results with other virus strains indicated clearly a strong strain dependency for viral adsorption.