Inactivating process for lipid envelopped virus, and new antivirus lipopeptides

摘要

The invention relates to an extraordinarily efficient method of inactivating lipid-enveloped viruses, such as herpes or retroviruses, in biological or biotechnological-particularly pharmaceutical-products, as well as in cell cultures by adding a cyclic lipopeptide or a mixture of lipopeptides or salts or esters thereof at specific concentrations. Lipopeptides were found to have a surprisingly high inactivation potential for lipid-enveloped viruses and in addition, they offer the advantage of an exceedingly low in vivo toxicity, so that the step of removing the inactivating agent from pharmaceutical products or cell cultures can be omitted. The invention is also directed to new antiviral lipopeptides which belong to the surfactins.