FIG 3.

Influence of inactivation methods on viral capsid and envelope. (A) Chemical disinfectants and virus were mixed at a ratio of 10 to 1, and the mixture was incubated at room temperature for 1 min before the amount of HCV core protein was determined via core-specific ELISA. In the case of heat treatment or UV irradiation, the viruses were mixed at a ratio of 10 to 1 with DMEM and heated at 80°C for 5 min or UV irradiated before core-specific ELISA. (B) Proteolytic digestion protection assay to determine PK-resistant core protein. Therefore, one part was left untreated, one part was treated with 50 μg of PK/ml for 1 h at 4°C, and another part was lysed in 2% Triton X-100 prior to PK treatment. The amount of protease-resistant core protein was quantified with a core-specific ELISA. Depicted are the means plus the standard deviations for at least three independent experiments. n.d., not detected. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-tailed Student t test.