Thermal inactivation of Newcastle disease virus. I. Coupled inactivation rates of hemagglutinating and neuraminidase activities.

The thermal stability of Newcastle disease virus has been characterized in terms of the rate constants for inactivation of hemagglutinating activity (HA), neuraminidase activity (NA), and infectivity. Inactivation of HA results in the concomitant loss of NA. Infectivity, however, is much more thermolabile. Disintegration of the virus particle is not responsible for the identical rate constants for inactivation of HA and NA, nor is their parallel inactivation uncoupled in envelope fragments produced by pretreating the virus with phospholipase-C. The data indicate that a common envelope factor(s) can influence the thermal stability of both activities.