Enrichment of measles virus-like RNA in the nucleocapsid fraction isolated from subacute sclerosing panencephalitis brains.

A procedure has been developed which facilitates the detection of measles virus RNA sequences in human brains. The procedure involves isolating subviral components (nucleocapsids) from brain tissues prior to RNA purification, followed by hybridization of these RNAs to cDNA synthesized from measles virus 50 S RNA template. Using these techniques we were able to obtain an RNA fraction which was manyfold enriched in measles virus-specific RNA, relative to unfractionated subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) brain RNAs 70-100% of the measles virus-specific RNA present these SSPE brain samples were recovered in this enriched fraction.