Purified scrapie prions resist inactivation by procedures that hydrolyze, modify, or shear nucleic acids.

Prions were purified from scrapie-infected hamster brains and incubated for 24 hr at 65 degrees with 2 mM Zn2+ or 5 mM Mg2+; no loss of infectivity was observed. Bacteriophage M13, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), potato virus X, and potato spindle tuber viroid were all inactivated by divalent metal ions under these conditions. Prions also resisted inactivation by prolonged digestions with DNase I, RNases A and T1, and micrococcal nuclease. Prions were resistant to psoralen photoadduct formation using high concentrations of psoralens; in contrast, M13 bacteriophage was inactivated by low concentrations of all these psoralens. Hydroxylamine failed to inactivate prions even after lengthy exposures to concentrations as high as 1 M, while TMV and M13 were both inactivated. Sonication of prions failed to decrease infectivity even though rod-shaped aggregates were disrupted while both M13 and TMV lost infectivity.