The consistent use of organic solvents for purification of phospholipids from brain tissue effectively removes scrapie infectivity.

A procedure for the purification of phospholipids from brain tissue was evaluated for its efficacy in eliminating scrapie agent infectivity. The key feature of the process was that phospholipids were extracted and purified by exclusive use of organic solvents. Experiments were done by in vivo animal bioassay on a scaled-down version of the original procedure using 263 K-infected hamster brains as source material. The absence of any detectable infectivity in the final preparations indicated that organic solvent extraction is acceptable for purification and decontamination of biological products from scrapie-like agents provided that only the organic phase is used.