STUDIES ON PHOTOINACTIVATION BY VARIOUS PHTHALOCYANINES OF A FREE OR REPLICATING NONENVELOPED VIRUS

The non-enveloped picornaviruses, which are particularly resistant to physicochemical inactivation, include the aetiological agents of polio myelitis, hepatitis A and E and infectious common cold (rhinovirus). I n this work we used human rhinovirus type 5 (RV-5) cultivated in VERO cells to study the photoinactivating effects of several phthalocyanine s and naphthobenzoporphyrazines. Free RV-5 was photoinactivated by alu minium trisulphonated naphthobenzoporphyrazine at 5 X 10(-8) M concent ration. This photosensitizer was also active on replicating virus when the infected VERO cells were treated with 5 X 10(-6) M concentration followed by a very short illumination period. On the other hand, the Z nPc(3-MeO-Py)(4) phthalocyanine, which possesses four positive charges , does not photoinactivate free rhinovirus, but this molecule protects VERO cells against RV-5 infection when added to the cultures before v irus inoculation, in the presence or absence of subsequent illuminatio n, and may therefore be considered as an antiviral agent in itself.