VIROLOGY


X-ray irradiated viruses: a new research product from NCPV


X-ray irradiation is enabling inactive virus material to be available for research use from The National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses, part of the National Collection of Type Cultures. Team leader Dr Jane Burton and virologist Teresa Ramalho explain how.


One of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic was the urgent requirement to generate inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus material that could be used to develop and validate diagnostic assays such as lateral flow devices.1


As the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants of concern (VOCs) emerged,


diagnostic assays required constant re- evaluation and updating.2


Pioneering development of methods for the X-ray irradiation of viruses had been carried out by the Diagnostics and Pathogen Characterisation Department at UKHSA, Porton, in collaboration with


colleagues at UKHSA Chilton.3,4 Building on these studies, SARS-


CoV-2 VOCs were X-ray inactivated and distributed for use in diagnostic assay development. This led to a collaboration between the Diagnostic and Pathogen Characterisation Group and The National Collection of Pathogenic Viruses (NCPV) to make X-ray irradiated SARS- CoV-2 available to the wider scientific community through the NCPV catalogue.


X-ray irradiation Unlike more traditional methods of inactivation (such as heat or chemical inactivation),5,6


X-ray irradiation does not,


to our knowledge, affect the antigenic structure of the virus. Whole virus particles


Fig 1. Transmission electron micrograph image of (A) live and (B) irradiated mpox virus (MPXV). Virus was fixed overnight at room temperature by adding formaldehyde to give a final concentration of >4%.7


20 JUNE 2024 WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM


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