%0 Journal Article %A Miyamoto, Hideaki %A Okamoto, Hiroaki %A Sato, Koei %A Tanaka, Takeshi %A Mishiro, Shunji %T Extraordinarily low density of hepatitis C virus estimated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation and the polymerase chain reaction %D 1992 %J Journal of General Virology, %V 73 %N 3 %P 715-718 %@ 1465-2099 %R https://doi.org/10.1099/0022-1317-73-3-715 %I Microbiology Society, %X The genomic RNA of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the plasma of volunteer blood donors was detected by using the polymerase chain reaction in a fraction of density 1.08 g/ml from sucrose density gradient equilibrium centrifugation. When the fraction was treated with the detergent NP40 and recentrifuged in sucrose, the HCV RNA banded at 1.25 g/ml. Assuming that NP40 removed a lipid-rich surface coat from HCV, the 1.08 g/ml and 1.25 g/ml HCV RNA may correspond to intact HCV virions and nucleocapsids, respectively. The extraordinarily low density of the virion is unusual in comparison to the density of classified viruses. %U https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/0022-1317-73-3-715