Table 1 Methods for purifying VLPs
From: Viral communities of the human gut: metagenomic analysis of composition and dynamics
| VLPs isolation steps | Methods | Pros | Cons | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting material amount | 0.5 ~ 5 g | Recovery of low abundant viruses | Long processing time; Difficult in filtration with high mucus samples (such as meconium) | [10, 12,13,14,15] |
| 0.1 ~ 0.3 g | Simple and quick | Lost of low abundant viruses | [17, 28, 29, 31] | |
| Suspension buffer | SM buffer | Long-term storage of viruses | [10, 12,13,14,15, 28, 31] | |
| PBS buffer | [17, 29] | |||
| Filtration pore size | 0.20 μm | Better efficiency of removing host and other microbial cells | Lost of viruses larger than 0.20 μm | [13,14,15, 31] |
| 0.45 μm | Recovery of viruses larger than 0.20 μm | Less efficiency of removing host and other microbial cells | [12, 29] | |
| 0.45 μm filtration followed by 0.20 μm filtration | [10, 17, 28] | |||
| VLPs enrichment | Centricon Centrifugal Filter | Simple and quick | Proteins from host or other microbial cells cannot be filtered | [13, 31] |
| CsCl density gradient centrifugation | Better efficiency of removing host and other microbial cells | Long processing time; Limited number of samples that can be processed in parallel | [10, 14, 15] | |
| Further purification | Usage of chloroform | Better efficiency of removing host and other microbial cells | Lost of enveloped viruses | [10, 12,13,14,15, 17, 28, 31] |
| No chloroform | Recovery of enveloped viruses | Less efficiency of removing host and other microbial cells | [29] |