Demonstration of non-infectious hemagglutinating particles of rabies virus and isolation of the hemagglutinin by disruption of the virion with Nonidet P-40.

Non-infectious hemagglutinating particles of rabies virus accumulated in the fluid phase of chick embryo cell cultures at 6 days post-infection, though they were undetectable at 4 days. They were characterized as looped filaments resembling viral envelope as revealed by electron microscopy. Another form of hemagglutinin (HAnin) was obtained by solubilization of partially purified virions with Nonidet P-40 (NP-40) followed by successive high speed and CsCl density gradient centrifugations. The density of the isolated HAnin averaged 1.28 g/cm3. SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the HAnin demonstrated that it was mainly composed of a glycoprotein (G) with a molecular weight of 83,000. Electron microscopically, it differed from the above non-infectious hemagglutinating particles, being much smaller in size and showing a star- or rosette-like appearance with a diameter of about 25 nm, composed of a central particle surrounded by particles resembling envelope-spikes. Virus-neutralizing (VN) and hemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibodies were produced in rabbits immunized with the HAnin isolated from virions.