Interaction of polyunsaturated fatty acids with animal cells and enveloped viruses.

Essential unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic, or arachidonic were incorporated into the phospholipids of animal cells and induced in them a change in the fluidity of their membranes. Exposure of enveloped viruses such as arbo-, myxo-, paramyxo-, or herpesviruses to micromolar concentrations of these fatty acids (which are not toxic to animal cells) caused rapid loss of infectivity of these viruses. Naked viruses such as encephalomyocarditis virus, polio virus or simian virus 40 were not affected by incubation with linoleic acid. The loss of infectivity was attributed to a disruption of the lipoprotein envelope of these virions, as observed in an electron microscope.